Down the Lazy River (Nene)

We're now about half way down the River Nene from Northampton to Peterborough so it seems a good time to update the blog.  The River Nene is flowing really slowly with the drought, at least it was until last night's rain.

Last Wednesday we came down the last three locks of the Northampton Arm and joined the river at Northampton.  Mooring by the yellow bridge we walked in to Morrisons which is conveniently very close to the water.  We carried on through several locks and moored overnight on the Washlands, a tract of low lying land which is used to store flood water in winter to avoid the town being inundated.

In this photo we are approaching the 17th and final lock of the Northampton Arm.  Below this lock a short arm links to the River Nene.

A warm welcome in the black and a 'please pay our licence fee' in the green on this sign.  We now have a Gold licence which covers CRT and EA waterways.

This is South Bridge as we came into Northampton on the River Nene.

Here we are approaching the yellow footbridge which is the place to moor to go into town and to Morrisons.  We have heard this is not a safe place to moor overnight but we have also met boaters who have done so and had no problems.

We carried on and here we are going through Becket's Park Lock, the first on the Nene.  This one is a conventional double lock with 'V' doors.  The brown line across the picture is a footbridge that seems to be closed at the moment.

Here are some ducks doing what ducks should do, namely eating the duck weed.  We need some more ducks because there is quite a lot of weed.

This is a distant view of the pontoon mooring we used on Wednesday night taken from the embankment that surrounds the Washlands.

As it has been for weeks, it was very hot in the afternoon and we retreated to the shade of some trees above the boats.

And here is a fine sunset that evening.

The Nene valley is delightfully rural and we cruised on downstream on Thursday and Friday (26th and 27th):

This view looking back from Weston Favell Lock shows the gateway into the Washlands.  Here a gate can be pulled up from the bed of the river to close off the Washlands in flood conditions.  No such danger when we came through!

This is the more common form of lock on the Nene with a guillotine gate on the downstream end of the lock.  This one is at Weston Favell and is operated electrically - just press the button and the gate moves (very slowly).  The gate is lifted a few inches to drain the lock and then pulled right up to let the boats out.  There is quite a pull forwards on the boat when the guillotine is first lifted.

This is a fun job with good views!

Given the Tour de France is in progress, we thought this polka dot lock beam at Earl's Barton was particularly appropriate.

We've been travelling a fair bit lately with a nice couple, Mike and Jill, on a boat called Waterloo Sunset 2.  Here Jill is getting back onboard after leaving Earl's Barton Lock.  And yes, it's OK to leave the guillotine up, indeed that's what you're supposed to do even when travelling upstream.

We've joined the Friends of the River Nene, mainly because this gives you access to additional moorings and we stayed on this mooring at Great Doddington on Thursday evening.

We walked into the village in the evening and had a meal at the Stag's Head Inn.  Later we crossed back over the river and the landscape was almost golden in the evening light.

Friday was yet another very hot day and these sheep were sensible enough to get in the shade.

We cruised into Wellingborough shown here with the Whitworths flour mill.  There are loads of moorings here and the riverside would be very pleasant but for the loud noise from the flour mills on the other side of the river.  It really is intrusive so we filled with water, emptied the toilet and carried on. 

This is the old bridge which used to carry the A6 over the Nene.  There is now a modern bridge as well.

Friday night we moored by the old Rushden and Diamonds football ground.  The club has gone, but the moorings remain.  When it hadd cooled down a bit, we walked into Irthlingborough (does this mean the 'town of the earthlings?).  The picture is of Irthlingborough Church with its unique belfry tower.

As we walked back from the village we debated whether to have a barbecue with supplies we had bought in Northampton.  Thundery showers were coming and going and in the end we decided to chance it.  Not surprisingly the rain came down and Ian, looking rather grumpy in the picture but really just concentrating, cooked under an umbrella.  The food was good though.

Today was  a day of strong gusty winds and we had a challenging morning of cruising and locking in the wind.

A few of the guillotine gates are manually operated, like this one at Upper Ringstead.  You turn the big silver wheel to raise and lower the guillotine.  There are a lot of turns from raised to lowered and it can be quite hard work.

Though we didn't have that much rain in the showers last night, perhaps elsewhere in the river catchment area did and today there was definitely more water in the river.  Some locks have good waterfalls over the upper gates.  If the flow is good enough you don't have to lift the paddles to fill the lock!

The river valley is attractive and here we are following Waterloo Sunset towards Denford.  You can just see Denford Church to the left.

At Woodford Lock we had difficulty in pulling the boat in to the lock mooring against the strength of the wind.  Mike managed (just) to avoid Waterloo Sunset being blown into trees on the opposite bank.  After going through the bridge at Thrapston we decided that we had enjoyed enough excitement for one day.  So we are moored here under some willow trees.  Just hoping the trees don't drop big branches on us.

The river which is written 'Nene' is  pronounced 'NEN' upstream of Thrapston and pronounced 'NEEN' downstream of Thrapston.  We've no idea why but we are now on the Neen or Nene.  Tomorrow (Sunday 29th) the forecast is terrible so we may be here for 2 nights.  After that we shall be carrying on downstream towards Peterborough on our quest to reach Cambridge.

Oxford Summit to River Nene

As set out in our last posting we are now heading for Cambridge which means going on the East Anglia Rivers.  Last Thursday (19th) we left the summit level of the Oxford Canal, navigating the zig zags of the top pound to reach Marston Doles and head down the 9 Locks at Napton.

Once down the two locks (probably these should be referred to as the Marston Doles Locks), we have a view ahead to the houses in the village of Napton stretching up the side of Napton Hill which has a windmill on the top which can be seen from here but is not very obvious in the picture.

Once down the locks (and on Friday after an overnight and another good meal in the Folly Inn at the foot of the locks) you can see the windmill properly.

A couple of miles below the locks we passed Napton Junction.  In fact this photo is taken looking back after we passed the junction.  We originally came from Warwick which is where the red boat is coming from.  Since then we've been to the top of the Thames and back.

For a few miles the  Grand Union and the Oxford Canals follow the same channel and you begin to see ahead the spire of Braunston Church shown here.  The old windmill can be seen to the right of the church spire.

Braunston Junction is a delight with two fine cast iron bridges carrying the towpath over the left and right branches as the canal reaches the junction.

Here's the sign at the junction.  We had come from the canal labelled 'Birmingham and Oxford' and we turned right to 'London'.  Left is the North Oxford Canal heading for Rugby and Coventry.

On Friday afternoon we had a walk up to the village of Braunston and then back down to the interesting bits of the canal here at the centre of the canal system.  This stern warning was on one of the boats in a boatyard.  We didn't see anyone to explain more.

This fine looking steel vessel is a sea going sailing boat with a retractable keel and can be cruised up the Grand Union Canal from the Thames.  It was for sale in Braunston Marina and has hardly been used from its launch.

It is always worth stopping in Braunston as so much is going on.  We visited the old Stop House (where canal tolls were collected) and there are some interesting old maps and photos on display.  The original course of the Oxford Canal heading south was actually through what is now Braunston Marina.  On Saturday we went up the six Braunston Locks and through the tunnel which is about one and a quarter miles long.

Here is Leo waiting for Lock 4 of the flight.  Somehow we managed to change partners here as we came up the first three locks sharing with one narrowboat and finished the flight with another.  A boat which was on its own 'stole' our original partner, but there were no hard feelings!

Here is the west portal of Braunston Tunnel which proved to be remarkably dry inside, though we have had a drought which might explain it.

Here is a metal rubbing strip to protect the corner of a bridge that has been carved by ropes over many years as the horses towed their boats through.

This is part of the floor in Welton Church seen on one of our afternoon walks from a mooring to the east of the tunnel.  The green stone is Malachite and was a gift from the Tsar of Russia to a local lady.

And in the same church was this alms box carved by a local man.  The slot for coins is in the palm of the hand, a nice touch.

We read about this and went back to find the headstone.  A sad story of a six year old who went wandering in the fields and died.  Given it was January we suspect he may in fact have died of exposure rather than starvation, but it is a sad story.

On Sunday we came down the 7 Buckby Locks with a nice couple, Martin and Carolina, in a hire boat and then carried on to moor at Weedon.

Here we are just coming to Norton Junction.  You turn left here for a narrow canal to reach Leicester and the north. We carried on turning south towards London.

This view is looking down the Leicester Branch under the footbridge.

Here Leo is waiting for Helen to set the top lock of the Buckby flight.  The New Inn is to the right but it was not opening time.

We had a walk round Weedon which is a lovely village, especially Lower Weedon by the church and the infant River Nene.  We came under these two road tunnels.  The near one is under the railway and the far one has the canal over the top.  The canal here is on a high embankment crossing the Nene valley.

Our walk took us across the tiny River Nene and through this field of corn to Flores Church. It was again very hot so we curtailed our walk here, returning along the main road but fortunately there is a pavement.

Yesterday (Monday) we did not go far but moored near Gayton Junction ready for our descent to Northampton today.

This is a small marina which used to be called High House but is now called the Willows.  It is where Leo spent the winter of 2013/14 and we still have friends there.  As we were passing we stopped to chat with Penny and later friends Paul and Gail arrived too.  Paul and Gail introduced us to High House as we came up the Grand Union with them that year.  It was good to see people and catch up.  What with socialising and filling with water the day seemed to disappear and we spent the rest of the afternoon moored near Gayton Junction in the shade following what is now our regular pattern to try to avoid the worst of the heat.

There are 17 locks down from the Grand Union to Northampton and the River Nene.  So we set off early for us (about 8.30).  The photo is of Gayton Junction where we turned left towards Northampton.

We passed Gayton Marina and then around a few bends we came upon distant views as we reached the top lock.

This picture is looking back to the top lock as we start our descent.

The scenery on the Northampton Arm is delightfully rural though it does get noisier with a lot of busy roads close by.

Here Leo is waiting for the lock which is actually sited under the M1, one of the busy roads.  At least this lock was cool and shady.

It's another very hot day and we didn't make it all the way to the river.  We've stopped short in this pleasant shady spot above Lock 15.  Tomorrow will do for tackling the last locks and doing a big shop at Morrisons in Northampton.

So our next posting will be from the River Nene heading towards Peterborough.  At least we should be able to have a swim most days as we did on the Thames a couple of weeks ago. The water is already beautifully clear and we are seeing loads of fish.