Look East: Day 3

It’s been a pretty blustery day today, but also quite sunny and warm at times.  We made use of the water and rubbish facilities this morning, before returning our gate fob to the marina office and getting our £10 deposit back.  Then we left the marina and made the very sharp turn to Northampton Town Lock; from here is all new water to us.  The lock is crossed by the new and very stylish footbridge to the University.

This and the next couple of locks are manual and with mitre gates at both ends.  The paddles have a hydraulic mechanism and take more than 70 turns of the windlass to open and close.  Weston Favell Lock is the first with a guillotine gate at the bottom end.  It is automated, so there’s just a button to press.  However, they have to be left raised, so going in our direction the gate has to be lowered first and the lock filled.

The river changes character often: by the Northampton Washlands it’s wide with big skies; some places are narrow and tree lined; others are extremely bendy.

We passed Billing Aquedrome and a family watched us work Billing Lock.  At Cogenhoe Lock a boat was in the lock to come up, but was waiting for a boat just behind.  At Whiston Lock there was a lot of weed in the lock mouth, which we took in with us and then caught again as we left.  Adrian managed to shake it off by coming into the landing stage to pick me up.

At White Mills Lock we joined a boat which had just come out of the marina there.  At Barton Lock, the neighbouring field was full of ponies, some with foals, who didn’t seem worried by our presence at all.

We stopped at not quite 3pm on the Friends of the River Nene (membership just £12 a year) moorings at Hardwater Mill, with a nice view of the mill itself up ahead.  It feels like a fairly remote spot, especially as we’re on a narrow strip of land between the river and the mill race.

10 miles, 10 locks.  (24 miles, 34 locks)