7 September
Today was a day of stops and
starts. We started off at 8.40 in bright sunshine though it was quite cool. We
did two locks and then moored on the Friends of the River Nene (FOTRN) mooring
at Stanwick Lakes.
We spent a couple of hours walking round the water-filled
gravel pits enjoying the peace and quiet (though at weekends and holidays it’s
a great place to bring the children). We had coffee in their visitor centre,
sitting overlooking one of the lakes.
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| Stanwick Lakes |
Next, we moved on through one
more lock and stopped for lunch at Irthlingborough. By now the sky had clouded
over and it was becoming very breezy. It was time to get going again, two more
locks and then we moored up on another FOTRN mooring, this time one near the
Irchester Viaducts.
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Although there are trains running, they are not intrusive
and it is another quiet site. This one is more isolated than some others –
there are no footpaths to anywhere! So no evening walk, but it is very pleasant
here at the boat – although it is windy, there are interesting clouds to watch and
it is not raining.
Yesterday evening’s rain seems to
have been enough to raise the river level again as could be seen at some of the
lock gates.
Today we did five locks of four
different kinds:-
Lower Ringstead is an automated
guillotine, Upper Ringstead is a manual guillotine (hooray, the last of the big
wheel locks!), Irthlingborough is another automated guillotine, Higham has
mitred gates at both ends and Ditchford is an automated radial (the only one we
have encountered on the Nene or the Great Ouse).
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| Radial Bottom Gate |
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