Tuesday 15th August; Fotheringhay to Alwalton FOTRN
What a wonderful mooring this is! Peaceful and beautiful, and well worth the £5 mooring fee. We set off about 9.30, hoping to have a slightly shorter day’s cruising than we have been having recently. We cruised in warm and brilliant sunshine, looking back at Fotheringhay as we went.
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| The castle mound and church |
It must have been an impressive sight back in Richard III’s day and when Mary was a prisoner, with the keep rising high above the surrounding walls and buildings. We had wondered about stopping on the Elton offside moorings to get some milk in the village, but weren’t quite sure where it was so we didn’t stop (though it was obvious, looking back on it!).
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| Approaching Elton lock |
But the little café at Yarwell lock had milk, and some cake to take away too. Wansford lock was in a pretty location, and is in an open field, which today was being grazed by sheep. No chance for Meg to get off and have a potter about!
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| Sheep at Wansford lock |
Wansford bridge is another pretty stone one, and shortly afterwards is the rather larger Great North Road bridge carrying the A1. It was built in 1928, and the river marked the old county boundary.
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| Wansford bridge – old and attractive |
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| Great North Road bridge - one side in Huntingdon |
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| And the other in the Soke of Peterborough |
We wondered if we would be able to stop on the EA visitor moorings at Wansford, where the Nene Valley railway crosses the river. We knew it was a steaming day as we had heard the whistle a few times, but didn’t see even a puff of smoke, let alone the train! Between Wansford lock and that mooring the river takes a great loop to the north and back again, the Waterway Routes map having the appearance of the chalk outline of a murder victim; Dave rather thought the body must have been wearing a German army helmet!
Sadly the Wansford station mooring was fully occupied so yet again we had lunch on the move. We had a scare at Water Newton lock. I got chatting to a couple out for a walk and had failed to close a top paddle. Water was pouring over the top gates anyway, so when I started to raise the guillotine I thought that was the reason for the turbulence. It wasn’t, and I realised just in time to avoid a nasty accident. We were rather shaken by that, and hoped we would be able to moor at Alwalton lock and not have to go down that one too. A boat coming up Yarwell lock earlier had warned us that it is a popular place for local kids to swim, and recommended that we should use the offside FOTRN mooring rather than the EA one next to the lock. With two boats already on the EA side and one on the offside, we just squeezed in with our stern in the tree at about 3.30. At the time there looked to be about 15 kids sitting around or jumping into the empty lock. The other boat on the FOTRN side left after a short while, and about an hour later the first of three boats came up the lock. The young owner apparently told the kids bluntly that if they went in the lock when she was coming through they would die, and they stayed well clear. But as soon as the other two boats had come up they were back having their fun and larking around as kids do.
It wasn’t our favourite mooring, crowded and noisy as it was on this sunny afternoon. Two narrowboats had managed to moor themselves in front of us on the FOTRN side by having one with half its length in the reeds and other with its fender overlapping ours. Their cruiser friends breasted up to this one. The other boaters got their chairs out and although they weren’t near our boat it all felt rather cramped. Eventually some of the kids started going home for their tea, but the stragglers then climbed up on top of the open guillotine gate and jumped in from there. Really daft behaviour, and I felt obliged to lay off the alcohol till they had all cleared off in case emergency assistance was needed.
12½ miles, 5 locks, stupid behaviour and nowhere to walk the dog.
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