Saturday 26 May 2012

Last night and today have been strange days. This was the view for our front deck last night and no we were not in Egypt with the moon over the pyramid but Fenlake in Bedfordshire.

For some reason around here the birds don’t all go to sleep and we could hear them at anytime we were awake throughout the night. There was a bit of noise until late in the evening from youngsters enjoying a warm Friday night but the were well away from the far side of the river and we didn’t even see them.

This morning we were away by quarter to eight, winded and heading downstream, we passed the entrance to Priory Marina which is now home to some Canalclub wide beams and on down to Cardington Lock. There was no one around to work us through this morning so we had to do it ourselves. This wasn’t a problem for us, but for anyone coming upstream there is no access from the lock landing to the lock, Diana had to climb down the lock ladder before we left the lock to get back onboard. The next port of call was Castle Mill Lock, this fills much faster than it empties, but with the side paddle of slacker there is no draw on the boat at all.

We passed the moorings and chalets on our left and I was able to get a photo of the one with a tree growing through its roof.

 

Here we met a Narrowboat who had moored at Great Barford the night before so enquired if there was any space outside the pub and he gave a hopeful reply. It also meant that Willington lock was with us.
We had considered mooring behind the island just above but there was a wide Narrowboat manoeuvring  there as we came by, it turned out that he backing out and ended up following us down stream. When we arrived at the EA moorings at Gt Barford the space where “No Problem” had been moored was free, so I slid in backwards just before the wide beam came shooting through the bridge.

We moored up at 10 30 am another first for us, we are normally only then setting off for the day, not finishing. Since we have been here cruisers have come and gone but there would not have been space for us if we had arrived latter. A few canoes have arrived including a family in an inflatable canoe which looked quite impressive.

The Martins are hard at work building nests in the gaps in the stone work of the bridge, one has almost sealed the front door up in readiness for her family with her mate making regular visits.