We hung on till half-ten, hoping that the afternoon’s drier weather would arrive a little early, but it didn’t and we got a little dripped on. Not really enough to warrant waterproofs, though, a jumper sufficed.
Having learnt our lesson on the Great Ouse, we pulled onto the services, filled with water and emptied a half-full loo tank. Always take the opportunity when it presents itself, we decided.
The mill opposite the Embankment obviously used water transport at one time.
I imagine the railway, running the other side of the building, replaced the river as a freight route. I can’t find any reference to what was produced here. Any ideas?
Two old boats are now used as floating restaurants.
The Grain Barge…
…and Leendert-R, some way from home I suspect.
Two rail bridges, two footbridges and two roads all cross the river within a ¾ mile.
Beyond the bridges, although there’s still a considerable amount of urban sprawl either side, heavy vegetation hides it from the river.
We encountered our first Nene lock today, that at Orton.
Orton Lock
Most of the locks on this navigation have a downstream guillotine and upstream mitre or “pointing” gates. The protocol is to leave the lock empty and the guillotine up, so they should all be in our favour, but, unless someone is coming downstream, I’ll have to go back and empty them once we’re out. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.
One down, 36 to go…
PYC
Ooh, that’s a lot of water, now where are the moorings?
Ah, there!
Meg’s not keen on the mesh pontoon surface, but with a launching mat she’s coping…
We were the first here, since we arrived the pontoons have filled up.
Well, first impressions have been good, we’re going to enjoy this trip back up to the ditches, I reckon.
There’s a Cancer Research event on here this evening, one of their Race For Life 5km runs. I hope the rain holds off for them.
Locks 1, miles 3½
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