2am, thunder and lightening woke us all. The windows needed closing as the rain hammered down on Oleanna. As we tried to get back to sleep I wondered if our next problem would be too much water!
Drawing board back in it’s slot with stools
Monday mornings is when people are about again at the cruising club. Mick went to chat with Fred and get another £3 worth of electric, our hope is that we won’t still be here next Saturday.
Tilly finding shade under the bench
What a lovely mooring this is. Now that all the masses of woofers have gone elsewhere Tilly comes and goes to the shed as she likes, the friendly cover towards the marina entrance from the river has also kept her busy today. It’s quiet, no passing foot fall. The benches are nice to sit out at for lunch, very pleasant.
Jar of bay leaves coming in handy again
I got on with the final things before my meeting tomorrow. Colemans’s in town could scan my plans so after finding out who would be running the country and having lunch I walked in. It was a surprisingly well stocked stationers, due to the close proximity to Oundle School which seems to surround that part of town.
St Peter’s Church
I had a little wander about before heading back to the boat.
Blue skies across the water
By the end of the day, my model was packed up ready for tomorrow. Drawings scanned and copied. A new storyboard and photos of model pieces in the dropbox folder. Time to enjoy a Monday night roast. Well that was the plan until I got the chicken out of the fridge and it smelt decidedly odd! Mick was sent into town to Tescos for a fresher bird.
0 locks, 0 miles, 73 lightening flashes, £3 more, 24 copies, 12 scans, 1 dropbox filled, 1 model packed and ready to go, 1 chicken in the bin, 1 chicken in our tummies.
The club didn’t stay open that late last night, the only customers were those stranded by the lock closures, so one family from NB Shadow, us and the volunteers who were running it. At some point during the day the volunteers left on their boat with all their woofers, they must moor elsewhere. This meant Tilly had the place almost to herself, taking up watching duty under the shed behind the clubhouse.
The final push for me with finishing touches to the panto model today. The new improved Panto Piccadilly Circus was painted and broken down to make it look a little bit old and worn. Then an hour taking photos of every scene to do a storyboard. A few little jobs to do tomorrow, then fingers crossed that it all gets the thumbs up from the Director and I can have a few weeks that aren’t dominated by panto before I start painting it all full size.
How many lengths of the boat have we got?
We had lunch sat out on the nearest bench and then Mick spent sometime with Christmas lights. Checking to see if they worked and how many we have. Ken and Sue have kindly lent us their lights that they used on NB Cleddau for the Bedford River Festival. A couple of lengths, one of which is 100 meters long, but sadly Mick couldn’t get them to work. It looks like we’ll have to buy some more.
Checking they work
Why check the fairy lights in September? Why so many? Well you’ll have to wait a little bit longer before I tell you.
This evening we treated ourselves to an Indian Takeaway. It had been planned for last night, but we’d sat out boozing with Ken and Sue until it was too late for Mick to collect one by bike, lack of lights. We got our food from Curry Passion which is close to Waitrose and a ten minute bike ride away. The Lamb Rogan Josh came out on top, followed by the Aloo Paneer, the rear brought up by Chicken Tikka Masala which was mediocre. By no means the worst Indian we’ve had, but not in the top ranking. On the plus side we do have enough rice left over for stir fried rice in the next couple of days.
The show’s about to begin
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 model finished, 1 box to tart up, 1 storyboard to collate, 800 bulbs, 400ish not working, 1 very interesting shed, 1 woofer left, 1 bike delivery, 1 button to press.
Peartree Farm FOTRN mooring to Oundle Cruising Club
Just gone 9:30 it was push back time, the covers were rolled up and mooring spikes soon to be released from the hard ground. The chap who’d been cutting grass yesterday came for a chat. He and his wife arrive on a Friday evening about once a month and over the weekend he strims and trims the grass to keep the mooring looking nice. We chatted all things FOTRN, how rubbish some boaters literally were and how much we certainly appreciated all that the volunteers do with the moorings.
Goodbye Peartree see you in a few days
Then we were off backing our way the short distance to the junction with the river, we winded and headed off downstream. Soon followed by NB Sakuma (?) who reversed to the junction and winded to follow us, we’d be sharing the locks back to Oundle today.
3″ of caterpillar
Mick soon spotted that we’d got a stow away! A large caterpillar was crawling along our pram hood. I popped it into a tub so that we could release it on dry land at the water point at Wadenhoe. I think it was a Buff Tip Caterpillar at about 70mm long, this will turn into a moth that has fantastic camouflage looking like a twig of a birch tree.
Swimmers
This stretch of river was certainly popular this morning. We counted nine ladies swimming in batches of three, another about to set off from by the Kings Head, throw in a couple of canoes for good measure, it was busy. Fortunately the water point wasn’t so busy, in fact the pub moorings this morning were empty apart from one cruiser. We pulled in and topped up on water and released our stow away into a hedge.
Our locking partners soon arrived and once we were full we swapped with them, we headed for the lock landing to wait. Here the hedgerow was filled with sloes and blackberries. Two tuperwares came out and we started picking. Not being fans of gin the sloes were left for someone else. I know I could make something else with them, but they’d only go to waste as I haven’t the time. A Kingfisher kept an eye on how many we were picking, we did leave plenty for the birds.
An engine could be heard from below. The lock was in our favour, but we were waiting for the other boat. I went to see if I could assist the boat and explain the delay in coming through the lock. Below was Chop Wales on NB Freya, we’d moored alongside each other at Ferry Meadows a couple of weeks ago. He was quite happy to wait as he was going to do a bit of pruning to the willows at the end of the lock landing below.
Chop chopping
Chop by name, Chop by nature he got out his big choppers and from the stern of his boat he lopped away at the tree which was making the lock landing hard to reach. As we came out of the lock we chatted with him. He’ll be waiting in the queue for Islip Lock to reopen too, so we’ll see him again. He informed us that he’d been at Oundle Cruising club last night, we already knew this as we had spies keeping an eye out for vacant spots there. If no-one grabbed the space Chop had just left we’d have a mooring for a few days.
Down through Lilford Lock and then Upper Barnwell Lock, each boat taking it in turns to set the lock and work it. We glanced in to Lilford Marina, the pooh sucky machine backed to a pontoon. Today Saturday is the only day when you can get a pump out on this stretch of the river, no sign of NB Otter, maybe they’d already had their tank emptied.
Below Upper Barnwell Lock we wished our locking partners farewell, they were carrying on further downstream today. We nudged under the low bridge and there was NB Otter, NB Shadow and an Oleanna sized gap that Chop Wales had left this morning. We had a mooring!
A very warm welcome greeted us, credit put onto a hook up for our use. We had to daisy chain a couple of leads together to reach, and only just, picnic benches moved to cover any possible trip hazards.
Why have you tied up Wooferdom!?!
With there being some friendly cover about Tilly was allowed some shore leave, but warned that there were a lot of woofers about. This kept her on her toes about the place, at least 7 woofers about.
Mick bobbed into town for a Saturday newspaper and bumped into Ken and Sue, an invite was issued for them to join us for an evening drink at ‘our club’.
Old and new versions
I did some work, amending the adverts in Piccadilly Circus and trimming things down to be neat. Then at 6pm we headed to the club house for drinks. A couple of hours of convivial conversation, the temperature dropped, it was getting dark and we all needed some food to help soak up the wine and beer. We headed back to our respective boats, sadly it was too dark for Mick to head into town for a takeaway so we made do with a pasta salad. Another very pleasant evening with the Cleddau crew.
3 locks, 4.47 miles, 1 full water tank, 67 blackberries, 1 big chopper, 10 swimmers, 4 longhaired Dachshunds, 3 Jack Russells, 6 glasses wine, 2 Bombardiers.
Job 1. Encourage the cat to use shore based facilities. Failed!
Not the full works, but good enough
Job 2. Eat breakfast. Yum.
Job 3. Do a colour call for panto paints. Tick
Colour charts out
This takes quite a bit of time, working out which colours are needed, then reducing them to an affordable quantity. I’ll also need to check what there already is at the theatre.
Looking through my old Flints Hire and Supply catalogue I came across an entry for Owatrol. Life changing experience apparently. I tend to use a bit of it in with paint when touching up Oleanna, but never used it on a theatre set. I’m not sure I’m going to get time to repaint the gunnels before going of to panto. Then there’s the grab rail too!
Useful stuff
Job 4. Try to spruce up the model box. Partly achieved.
A length of wood was glued to the inside of the proscenium arch, but I’m not sure the glue is suitable for sticking wood to foam cor. We’ll see tomorrow when the tape is removed.
The extra weight of bay leaves assisting
Job 5. Tack glue the floor into the model box. Tick.
Small blobs of glue used to hold the floor in position, stop the edges from curling up, so that it looks good. But so that it is also easily removable for when I come to paint the floor. Encouraging the glue to stick required clearing some of the galley work top and using Hemsley and Hemsley along with the River Cottage GF recipe book and the largest jar of bay leaves in the world to weight it down. Thank you Frank.
Job 6. Other small painting jobs. Tick.
Job 7. Sort out when to show the model to everyone else and be included in a budget meeting. Half Tick.
Not sure I can wait for tomorrow!
Job 8. Everything else. That can wait for tomorrow.
Boats have come today. Boats have left.
The grass has been cut, edges stimmed.
Fires lit, conversations had.
0 locks, 0 miles, 4 arrivals, 1 departure, 1 more woofer, 2 jobs left to do, 1 model so nearly there, 3 days since I last stepped of the boat!
Oh hang on, a blowy windy sausage day with no friendly cover! Well that’s pants!!
Good trees though
Last night when I came in for my dingding we had the triangle to ourselves. But this morning there were swans. I soon saw them off by running up a nearby tree, then another until they got the message. Now we had it all to ourselv…… Hang on where did that boat come from?!
I tried my very best at being outside, but it really was very blowy. So I had to keep coming and going, She said I hadn’t stepped off the boat so did I really deserve any Dreamies. I always deserve Dreamies!
She kept an eye on notices. Not much news on the broken lock. She said ‘Well I’d best get on with work. We may need to spend whole days moving the outside once the lock is mended’. We’ve got places to be and appointments to keep, one of them Royal, so I decided I’d best help her out.
Yep that’s all lined up right
First the box came out. I’m not allowed in there, but all looked quite good from my side. She said things ‘still need doing’ and wrote a list.
‘Hello!’ Someone had appeared in the outside! In fact two boats had come to help tie up the blustery outside. Would four boats be enough to keep it under control? The She’s chatted. She had news, ‘The broken part has now arrived in Leeds where a new part has to be manufactured. Absolutely no clue as to the timescale but it’s clearly not an imminent fix. Grrrr!’ There was more Grrring from two Toms too. She just nodded, turned round and said ‘we need to make a back-up plan.’
That one’s done, apart from the floor!
Over their mid day dingding they counted miles, lock, cruising time. Three long days one way, two if we really had to. Backwards was two long days, or there was back to Oundle outside, half a day. Friday would be D’day, this is a very different sort of day to a sausage day, just thought I should point that out in case you got confused.
The next time I ventured out there was another boat, FIVE now clinging on to trees trying to keep the outside under control. Peartree Triangle where boats appear!
Sending out the Bat signal for help
She got the drawing board out. Time to check through the drawings and make amendments. I did the checking for her whilst sitting in a nice sunny spot.
On days like this Tom and I have very few places we can sit. A cat’s life time mission is to sit in any box they come across, but here on Oleanna there are boxes that are poisonous, that have to be walked round carefully. Tom ended up going outside to make fire with the other Toms, they all stood around the fire talking Tom things, some of them were still Grrring!
Tom’s vying for top Tom fire lighter
Another boat arrived, but they decided to keep on going despite the Toms saying there was nowhere for them to moor further on. Maybe they thought five boats was enough to keep the outside under control. It wasn’t. She still checked for news. There was more news.
Another lock ahead with another mechanical failure!Grrrr!!!
Perez needs help with that fly on his cheek
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 boat to 5, 1 woofer, 2 Grring Toms, 1 sausage day with wind, 1 D-day, 10 boaters with their fingers crossed, 8 paws crossed, 4 legs crossed, 1 pump out past being needed!1 more broken lock!
Just before 9am a Sainsburys van arrived with a big order for us, a good stock up especially when we had a voucher for triple nectar points to use. Everything was brought in through the side hatch and then stowed away. Good job Mick had gone through the stash of cat food the other day and donated brands and flavours Tilly turns her nose up at to the RSPCA in March. The space is now filled with porridge oats, oat milk and wine.
Time to return the van. I caught a lift into Oundle to have a bit of a look around and see if the Co-op had a few things that Sainsburys didn’t. I don’t know what I’d been expecting but it wasn’t such a large fine town. Georgian buildings with bold chimney stacks limestone everywhere. Plenty of independent shops. A prescription was collected, cat food and ketchup purchased then I headed back to Oleanna.
Is the front cloth finished?
Ken and Sue had their hoses out so it made sense to fill our tank up too. Mick was given a lift to the bus station in Peterborough by Enterprise, they weren’t keen on bringing him all the way to Oundle. Then we made ready to push off.
Word on the towpath was that the levels above Islip Lock had dropped 18″ overnight. Someone had left the top paddles up on the broken lock. Engineers had been to site and removed the gear box and taken it away for investigation in the mean time a replacement was being sought. EA notices came out confirming what we’d heard, the next update may be midday tomorrow via one of the engineers.
Despite the unknown length of stoppage we decided to push onwards and cover a few locks and miles, but most importantly moor up somewhere Tilly could go out. We pushed back and pulled onto the service mooring just as it was starting to rain!
The diesel tank was filled, £1.45 a litre. We thanked Mark and Jacqui who had been very welcoming and helpful. This is their last week in charge as they are retiring after many many years running Oundle Marina. Then it was time to say goodbye to Ken and Sue, although if Islip Lock reopens soon we’ll be seeing them shortly, or if it is doomed to be a long closure we’ll be returning in a few days as I’ll be needing to get to London for meetings.
Goodbye Cleddau
Across the pool, right out of the narrow entrance. Soon at Upper Barnwell Lock. Todays locks would all have powered guillotine gates, each of them sat open waiting for an uphill boat to arrive. Lunch was eaten on the go to be able to maximise shore leave for Tilly. It was windy!
We passed one boat NB Orinoco whom we’d shared a lock with on our way downstream. There was space at Wadenhoe. We considered mooring there and going for a pub meal, but instead I prepared a joint of pork, after all we’d just spent quite a bit of money on food.
As we rounded the big curve of the river, in one direction we could see Wadenhoe Church high on the hill, the other direction a triangle of tall trees, Pear Tree Farm mooring. We were quite surprised to find no other boats moored up, it meant we could pick the sunniest spot for our solar panels we pulled into Harpers Brook.
Clinging on in the wind
It took quite a bit to moor up as the wind was pushing Oleanna away from the bank constantly. First we tied to trees, then hammered spikes in and pulled Oleanna as close to the bank as possible at one end and then the other. Then Tilly could be let out.
Trees!!
Straight up one of the many trees. This mooring had many things to climb, but very little friendly cover, so Tilly came and went numerous times topping up on Dreamies.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent working, roasting the pork joint and trying to arrange rendez vous whilst we still don’t know how long we’ll be held up by Islip Lock. At around 7pm we were joined by another narrowboat who also pulled up on the sunny side of the triangle.
Sunset
3 locks, 4.59 miles, 89.3 litres, 1 full water tank, 1 farewell wave, 1 triangle, 1.5 miles of low water, 1 gear box, quite a few boaters with fingers crossed, 1 approval, 800 lights, 1 front cloth, 1 big joint of pork, 2 windy for a stamp of approval.
Ken very kindly gave Mick a lift back to Peterborough today so that he could pick up a hire car, well van. Today would be a trip to Scarborough for a change over of lodgers and an opportunity to add to the compost wheelie bins at the house, three full buckets to deposit. Mick had hunted round for a good deal on a car, it being Bank Holiday weekend meant it wouldn’t be cheap, but luckily he found that the Peterborough branch of Enterprise would be open today, saving us another days hire which we wouldn’t need.
I signed into the Geraghty zoom, changed to Sundays hoping that more people would be able to join, Saturday morning activities popular for both young and old. Subjects covered were good places to go on holiday, awol cats, and watering trees.
Front cloth
Mick soon returned, boat chores, water, yellow water all done. The van was loaded up and after breakfast he was on his way up to Scarborough, leaving Tilly and me to hold the fort.
Being on Oleanna on my own (apart from my feline assistant) meant I could take over pretty much all of the boat. Drawing board set out on the sofa, model box on the table where Mick usually is allowed a few inches, boxes of model bits and paints here there and everywhere. I hoped today would be a productive day.
A bit more colour
Boats came and went all day. A cruiser was put in the water. Others arrived to fill with diesel, all the time I kept my head down working, all the time Tilly closed her eyes, a shame the mooring here isn’t cat friendly.
Late afternoon Sue from NB Cleddau popped her head up to the mesh in our hatch and asked if I’d like a cuppa. A break would have been nice, but I was doing my best to make use of the extra space and a day sitting still, that list of notes slowly getting worked through. She did however bring the news that Islip Lock was closed due to a mechanical failure and would be closed until further notice. Islip is closer to us than Irthlingborough Lock which was closed until a couple of days ago. We’ll keep an eye on notices and hope it opens quickly, we’ve places to be!
A view of London town
I worked on into the evening, stopping for a Co-op chicken tikka masala with a homemade gf nan bread. Then I continued for a while longer, my front cloth my main aim of the day and still in need of more work.
In Scarborough, Mick met one of our lodgers, cut the grass (it actually needed cutting!), made up a bed for the night and did some laundry. All the familiar feline neighbours were still about suggesting the human neighbours haven’t moved house yet.
Hello Alan
Just as I was packing up for the night emails started to come in from the Director, she has a young family so tends to do work after their bedtime. This did mean I didn’t get to turn the TV on and have a cuddle with Tilly until after 10pm!
Getting there
0 locks, 1 broken, 0 miles, 1 van, 3 buckets, 3 feline neighbours, 0.75 front cloth done, 10.5 hours work, 1 very bored cat.
Another earlyish morning with the hope of avoiding people out to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, not that we have a problem with them, it’s just easier to avoid them if they’re not already in the water and still at home.
The wide beam not the first to leave their mark on the bridge
We got to see how much paint the wide beam had left on the bridge yesterday, just another gouge in the 1722 structure. Last chance for a photo of the church before we turned our back on Fotheringhay.
Goodbye Fotheringhay
We’d noted a narrowboat moored up facing the opposite direction to us, could this mean the next lock would be set in our favour? Yes! I was grateful as it was our next manual wheel operated lock and all I’d have to do was lower the guillotine gate once. Having enough hands to lock the wheel once finished is something I’ll need to master as there’s a lock some way ahead that is very hard to do by one person.
Tansor and Cotterstock both look like places to have a good wander around, even if they are only small. On the list for next time, suspect we’ll need to catch a bus or have a lengthy walk from Oundle.
Shopping mooring for Oundle
Now the river works it’s way southwards around the east side of Oundle, under several bridges to Ashton Lock. Ahead we could see the buoys that mark shallow water below the lock, a right hand bend immediately below it. The bow of a boat appeared, Mick slammed on the breaks and then reversed back to give them room to manoeuvre. Would we be passing them on the wrong side, did it really matter just so long as neither boat got stuck in the mud.
BOAT!
It took a while and eventually the bow came round followed by the stern. The main thing for us was that the lock, another manual one was sat waiting for us, only one movement required again! As we left the lock another boat appeared heading down stream, they were also very pleased that the lock was in their favour.
I think someone should look where they are going!
Two canoes, neither knowing which side to pass us on were avoided. Then a rib with two chaps fishing from it coming under a bridge. Had they clocked us? They were moving, both with lines in the river. One chap seemed to be steering, occasionally as they moved along at speed. Another boat passed on the wrong side. Have the rules changed? Has nobody informed us that the rules have changed?
At last passing on the right
Then a cruiser came round the next bend. They were facing towards us, straight at us! Their course was corrected slightly, then their bow faced us again, which way would they go, we only had a small distance further to starboard that we could move. In the end, in the nick of time they moved over and we finally passed someone on the right.
Essential lock equipment for the Nene
Lower Barnwell Lock was empty, a lady just walking over the bridge to the control panel. The guillotine gate started to lower. I bipped the horn. I beeped the horn. We were just about there! I BEEEEPED the horn! At last she spotted us and raised the gate again, very apologetic she was.
Hello Ken!
The narrow entrance to the marina, only just noticeable. Plenty of room on the Cruising Club moorings, but today we breathed in and turned into the marina, wide open water. We’d been told to head to the services, these weren’t at first obvious, but there was a bit of a give away, NB Cleddau with Ken and Sue chatting to the lady. Cleddau had almost got to Irthlingborough Lock when they heard it was broken about ten days ago. They’d returned down stream to the marina to await the lock reopening.
Pontoon sharing
We pulled in on the same pontoon, settled in, a very friendly welcome from all. A quick health and safety check revealed a fence with Tilly sized gaps under it right alongside an intermittently busy road. Sadly this means that for the next couple of days I’ll have to cope with a bored cat.
A bored bundle of cat
Mick had a lift from Ken and Sue into town to do a small food shop whilst I got my model box out. It was time to work my way through the show and make notes. As expected I ended up with two sides of A4! Several scenes just need a touch of a tweak, others need a bit more, but Christmas at the Tower of London looks great, even though I say so myself. The biggest job still to do is the front cloth which due to it’s nature will happen over several days.
The big glasses of Pimms
At 6pm my model was packed away, time for Pimms on the terrace with Ken and Sue. Very civilised. The setting sun put a limit on the time we were prepared to sit out, Ken’s timer for his tray bake encouraged people into their boats to eat. Mick had found some sad gits sausages at the Co-op so we had sausage and mash.
4 locks, 7.39 miles, 4 boats heading down stream, 1 trolling rib, 8 Kingfishers, 1 marina mooring, 7 trips, 1 load of washing, 1 bored cat, 2 x A4, 1 butterfly net, 1 pair snow shoes, 4 large Pimms, 6 bog standard sausages, 1 supermarket order started.
A wet itchy morning. Yesterday we knew that today would be wet. Yesterday we’d decided to set off early today to catch up to where we should be. Yesterday we realised we needed to fill with water. Yesterday we didn’t set an alarm clock. This morning we slept in, our brains forgetting the early start. Our brains registering the rain falling on the roof. Our brains doing nothing about anything.
As we had our morning cuppa with breakfast we decided that maybe we should stay put instead of getting soaked for four hours boating. Topping up on water could wait, Tilly was likely to be the only one to complain.
Surrounded by capsizing canoes
I worked all day. The trains rumbled across the bridge six times, the same class 14 engine pulling the carriages as yesterday. They also did a bit of shunting around of guards vans and another engine headed off on it’s own.
The narrowboat that pulled in behind us yesterday pulled away once the rain had stopped at around 2pm. Later on in the day it was replaced by a cruiser with three chaps on board who’d been to Peterborough for the beer festival. They hadn’t stayed as their boat is very shallow and was in danger of being over the top of submerged edging, which if the level dropped wouldn’t be good!
Getting festive today
Mick spent much of the day plugged in to his head phones listening to the days cricket. The kitchen got a good clean and sort out whilst I painted Christmas at the Tower of London.
This evening I’ve had a good catch up chat with David, he’s in a better place both mentally and physically than he’s been of late. More doors have opened for him so he can now access more support.
Quesadillas
0 locks, 0 miles, 1 very wet morning, 0 shore leave for Tilly or me, 1 empty box of white card model bits, 1 full box of painted model bits, 2 much brown though! 1 tidy clean kitchen, 1 empty yellow water tank, 1 alarm clock set for the morning.
Pudding Lane FOTRN mooring to Nene Valley Railway Bridge EA mooring
Last night I’d noticed I’d acquired a few insect bites. this morning I counted them 68. By the end of the day the count was up to 87! Mick has some too, he’s not counted his. Blimey what has been having a good munch on us? One thought is that we’d disturbed a lot of insects whilst out in the field looking for Tilly the other night. It’s a good job we’d stocked up on bite cream.
Views
Todays plan was to cruise, work our way through several locks to reach Fotheringhay, then have a few days off. This end of the River Nene does good views, no flood banks to get in the way and not too many trees hogging the banks.
At Wold Newton Lock the guillotine gate was down, the lock full, the river above really quite full, the level over the top of the gates. We reset the lock in our favour and brought Oleanna in, keeping her away from the cascade of water coming over the gates.
The mill (with extension)
This lock has to be one of the prettiest locks on the river, with it’s mill (not so original extension), church, house and various buildings all close by and lawns. A couple sat having morning coffee overlooking the weir cut, very lucky people.
Such a pretty lock
Round a big bend, dark clouds focused the sunlight over a field of cows who’d just had a visit from the Farmer. We pootled on, the A1 sticking close by. The Nene Valley Railway Bridge came into sight, followed by the pontoon, it was empty. A thought came through both our heads, maybe we should pull in and carry on tomorrow. I could have a full days work here instead of by the castle.
Moo!
We pulled in, making sure we overhung the far end of the pontoon, hopefully leaving enough space for another narrowboat. With it still being school holidays the railway was open today. A quick check of the time table suggested the first train of the day would soon be on it’s way towards Peterborough. The bell rang, followed a while later by the toot of a diesel engine, just enough time to get out onto the pontoon for a photo.
Today’s engine not as showy as when we moored here last time
I settled down to work and Mick headed off to look at trains. He’d deliberated on getting a rover ticket, he’d be able to do the round trip twice. If it had been a steam engine today then he’d most probably have done it, but with the drought only diesels are running at the moment, a Class 14 today. Instead he looked round the station, the engine shed, watched the train come back, head out, return and go back to Peterborough again.
Version ….4?
I reworked the troublesome scene and painted some funnels, added a few twinkly lights. There may be a better version yet to come, but if I run out of time this solution will be fine.
Tilly being captive here (the pontoon not the right sort) I gave her her spot on flee treatment a couple of days early, just in case the critters that have bitten us had come from her, we doubt it as she’s the only one not scratching!
1 lock, not 4, 3.02 miles, 1 full river, 1 change of plan, 3 services today, 4th version made, 1 reject funnel, 2 boaters promising to get up early tomorrow, 87 bites and counting.
