Great Barford Tuesday 16 July 2013

I described last nights mooring as an EA wild mooring, here is a photo to show what I meant.

We had our stern under the tree. Across the river a farmer was turning his hay, the cloud of dust spread out in a thin layer the width of the field. Later we were treated to what I think are called “sun dogs” where there is a patch of colour in the clouds some distance from the sun. 

This was followed by a magical sunset just to round off the night.

For some reason I still don’t quite understand we were on the move by 8 AM this morning. It was pleasantly warm, but by 10 AM it was hot, again getting into the 30s by lunch time.

Just after Houghton Lock we met a canoeist having his morning paddle before it got to hot. He continued down to the lock, turned and then overtook us.

There was quite a bit of traffic about and we saw at least one boat at every lock all the way to St Neots where we stopped to top up on BBQ supplies, when we arrived there was only one boat moored in the town and only two when we left.

When we left St Neots  Priory moorings the temperature was 31.5° C and we didn’t see another proper boat on the move for the rest of the day, I say proper because we passed these lads having a great time. At least I could see them unlike lone swimmers with just a head out of the water.A short way above St Neots bridge there is a very attractive row of terraced houses on the left bank. You may recall last time we came above St Neots I mentioned the foot bridge at Roxton lock being limited to 5 people. I think this photo shows that it a very good restriction, its debatable how it supports its self. Maybe its the railings holding it up? Again here the kids were having a great time sliding down the weir, I think if the flow had been any less they would have been struggling. The EA have moored a fleet of weed cutters to the end of the upstream lock moorings which will not help lining up when we come back, still I expect CaRT would have moored them along the moorings. We continued up to Great Barford to moor right in front of The Anchor pub for the night, again we are the only boat here. Since we have been here there have been two small cruisers go downstream, one of them managing to hit the multi arch road bridge which is not unusual, however he did escape without smashing his windscreen.