Look East: Day 4

The Countryfile forecast last night for the week ahead had an unwelcome message: it’s going to be windy.  That’s always bad news for narrowboats.  Today looked like the least windy, so when we were awake early we decided we’d get up, set off, and probably do a long day.  We left the very nice quiet moorings at Hardwater Mill at around 7.30, in gloomy, grey, cloudy, and slightly blustery conditions.  In less than a couple of hours we were at Wellingborough, where we pulled onto the moorings by the park.  We were glad we hadn’t come on to here yesterday, as there are plenty of busy roads and a noisy mill opposite.  Adrian went to Tesco over the road while I started a wash load and used the handy water point to fill the tank.  As we were about to leave the moorings, a boat came past, and we shared the next five locks with them.  It was a man and (we think) his dad, taking the boat to Blackthorn Lake Marina for blacking.

After Higham Lock there are two bridges, one very obviously daring from the 1930s, followed by its predecessor from the 14th Century.  The approach to the older one is a bit tricky, and you can see that it’s been hit quite a lot.

The locks came and went, including our first manual guillotine gates, which need a big wheel to to turned to lower and raise the gate.  As the day wore on it brightened up considerably, and the temperature rose.  There are lots of church spires visible from the river.  Woodford Church is one of the closest, but Denford Church looks perhaps the most typically English.

Around Denford we were watching at least three red kites swooping and whirling, upsetting the local crows and sometimes each other.

We were aiming to moor at Thrapston but were unsure where.  There is a single visitor mooring up an arm just before the bridge, but by the time we could see it was free, we were halfway through the bridge.  The Friends of the River Nene mooring was a bit gloomy under trees, and also landlocked, so we decided to go down Islip Lock and look at the public moorings by the sailing club.  There was a space between another narrowboat and a cruiser, so we slotted in, with a great view from the galley window.  The bank is high, so we’ve literally had to push the boat out to get the side hatch open, and will have to do so again when we want to close it.

17 miles, 12 locks.  (41 miles, 46 locks)