To Bedford and beyond!

 This posting on our blog takes readers from St Neots up to the navigable limit of the River Great Ouse and even beyond that as you will see. As I prepare this posting we have turned round and are now heading downstream back towards Ely and Denver.

On Monday (26 July) we set off upstream from St Neots to Eaton Socon (apparently pronounced 'Soakon'). This view from close to the lower lock landing shows the Rivermill which now has a restaurant.

At Tempsford we passed under the A1. The 2 carriageways cross on different bridges: we are passing under the new south bound carriageway and you can see the older one bridge carrying north bound traffic in the distance. At one time there was no bridge, only a ferry. Imagine the congestion if that was still the case!

Below Roxton Lock we passed the confluence of the River Ivel (on the left) with the Ouse. The Ivel can be navigated by small boats for some distance. But it is not one for narrowboats.

At Roxton Lock the bridge over the weir and lock was being rebuilt. It carries a public footpath which must be closed at the moment.

Great Barford, where we moored on Monday night is a great source of boating and swimming fun. This picture was taken from the road bridge and Leo is to the left with lots of swimmers and paddle boarders in the river. There is a scout camp too and scouts in canoes appeared later. Quite a noisy place on a warm afternoon especially when the braver swimmers started jumping in from the bridge . The Anchor pub is close to the mooring and we had lunch there and later walked upstream to an old lock where you can also moor on the old lock island.

Great Barford has a fine looking many arched bridge over the river. The downstream side shows a stone built bridge and the upstream side seen here has a brick finish as the bridge was widened in brick. It can be tricky steering through the arches if the river is running fast but it is fairly simple at present.

On Tuesday Ian spent some time changing the engine oil as well as the oil and fuel filters before we set off later than usual heading upstream towards Bedford. The picture is of Castle Mill Lock which we reckon must be the deepest on the river at about 10 feet. Even when the lock is full there is quite a height of wall above the boat. When empty it feels very large and cavernous. The lock fills and empties through the side wall from and into the weir stream. Filling the lock held the boat gently against the offside wall. It's all rather neat.

Next came Cardington Lock. Don't go looking here for the elsan emptying place shown on the GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) website - it is decrepit and unusable.  Above Cardington we stopped at the Fenlake GOBA mooring on the outskirts of Bedford, chiefly because we were hungry and needed our lunch. In the afternoon we explored the area which was not very inspiring. The huge pyramid nearby was the Oasis swimming pool which had been in the middle of a large moat. Sadly it all looked a bit unloved with the moat empty and tiles coming off. What was better was the network of footpaths and cycleways around here with many footbridges across the river. This photo was taken on Wednesday morning as we came right into Bedford. The waterfront here is lovely with an upper and a lower river running parallel and joined by Bedford Lock. Here we are on the upper river turned westward to pass under the Town Bridge to reach moorings on the north bank round the back of an island at Sovereign's Quay where there is a water point. There are more moorings on the south side of the upper river but, apart from one other narrowboat Ella, we saw only rowing boats from the two clubs here and a few canoes and paddleboards.

Here we are going under Town Bridge. There are other low bridges on the approach to Bedford and this may be one reason why few boats seem to reach here.

Our two days in Bedford were largely taken up with travelling to the navigable limit at Kempston, on Wednesday on foot and on Thursday by canoe. The bridge shown here is at Kempston which is about two and a half miles upstream from the centre of Bedford. It will be around here where the canal proposed to link Bedford with the Grand Union at Milton Keynes is intended to meet the Great Ouse. The bridge itself is supposed to be closed but people have found ways round the barriers so we copied them in order to return down the other side of the river.

On our way back on foot on Wednesday we decided to play our part in the Big Butterfly Count as there were a lot of wild flowers and the sun was shining. As well as more common species including 14 small whites, we spotted this speckled wood butterfly.

Having returned to Bedford we walked along by the upper river and had lunch at the Longholme cafe by a lake and then walked back into town. There were colourful gardens by the river but black clouds heading our way. Later the shower caught us and the rain came down hard so we sheltered under some large trees.

The castle mound looks down on this huge mosaic showing events from the town's history and a basic street plan.

This is Shire Hall built as a court building in the late 19th century and still used as magistrates courts today.

Towards the end of the afternoon we had thunderstorms and some good rainbows. This strange truncated rainbow is above the Shire Hall and river bridges.

On Thursday morning it was a bit windy but we blew up our inflatable canoe and set out to paddle up to Kempston. It was a much nicer day and we were sheltered from the wind for most of the way.

The notice on the bridge at Kempston marks the end of the Environment Agency Navigation. Could you get a narrowboat up here? We are told that some parts are shallow and it would be hard to find somewhere wide enough to turn round. The water is not clear so it was difficult to check the depth but Helen dipped a paddle in from time to time and it was deep enough for Leo every time she tried it. Some summers we are told the river is much lower than it is at present. The John Bunyan trip boat comes up here somewhere but we're not sure where it turns round. The two rail bridges coming out of town are very low (about 6 feet) too. So perhaps better for canoes until it is dredged properly.

For a canoe there is no problem going under the bridge at Kempston so we did. Soon we passed Kempston Mill which looks as if it has been rebuilt as modern flats but still retains a look of an old mill with the mill pond below it.

Both above and below Kempston the river is attractive.

After another half mile or so our way was barred by a small weir which you can see in the background here behind the swimmers. So it was time to turn around and go with the flow back to Bedford. On Thursday afternoon we visited the Higgins Museum and Art Gallery which was staging a special exhibition about airships. They were built at the nearby Cardington airfield from 1915, including the ill-fated R101 which crashed in 1930 and brought work on airships to an end. A curious arty film show with only a tenuous link to airships did not appeal to us though we did like the exhibition about people involved in the work and also the paintings of the riverfront at Bedford and there was loads more to see in the regular galleries

On Friday (30th July) we left Bedford and returned to Great Barford. This photo was taken in Bedford Lock going down from the upper to the lower river. The silver wheel to the right of Leo is the last wheel from the manual lock guillotines on the Great Ouse. This lock was the last to be converted to electrical operation in 2012.

So that brings us to the end of the navigable river and we are now heading downstream repeating our outward course, though we will be trying to visit the places we missed on our way up the river. We have also reserved some extra explorations for Leo, so watch this space.