Godmanchester to Buckden Marina
3.7 miles, 1 lock
The weather has, for the most part, been kind to us, and today, once again, dawned bright and sunny. Our walk this morning was along part of Port Holme Watermeadow - supposedly the largest water meadow in Europe.
It certainly is dog heaven
with an abundance of wild flowers
The only downside is noise from the A14 in the distance.
Godmanchester church peaks out above the trees
Nan
It was a calm and serene trip along a very pretty part of this river
Past Brampton Mill which is now a pub and restaurant
to the lock where Nan was put to work
Monty has crossing these bridges off to a fine art despite the rather hard metal grid surfaces
well there might be something interesting on the other side
Safely out of the other side of the lock - there is a lot to chat about at the bow and it looks as though Dick is at the helm
This was the first sign of what Nan and Dick were particularly interested in seeing
It is pretty impressive. I would love to watch from a safe distance when they bridge the gap.
More information can be found on the Gov.UK site with an impressive aerial shot of progress. The shot below shows the temporary bridge to allow them access during construction. From the river it is pretty impressive, but you get no idea just how big a job it is until you see the aerial shot. There is a lot more information available - in fact so much so it is hard to know where to start! From Highways England I see they are expecting the new A14 to be fully open in 2020. I wonder if that will change?
On past some lodges
I guess this is the 'skeleton crew'?
Our target was Buckden Marina - Cleddau was booked in for a repair to her Webasto the next day and we were hoping our bow thruster could be looked at. Tea and cake were consumed by the diesel pumps before Nan and Dick headed for home. We were told by the marina to stay there until the next day. Typically not one, but two boats arrived for a pump out! A lot of boat shuffling was done!
The marina is huge with a some narrow boats, but it is mostly a white world.
It is surrounded by wooden lodges as can been seen in the background here.
Buckden Marina to Hemingford Grey
8 miles, 3 locks
The Webasto repair was successful and we are booked in to have an engine service along with the bow thruster repair later this month.
Before we set off the unmistakable sound of heritage boats caught our attention
Sue, Monty and I headed off to Offord Lock with the rubbish to find the lead boat in the lock with the other one
waiting on the lock landing.
We wondered if this is a refurbished warehouse or a new build? Whichever it is it is very appropriate for its position
Once Cleddau's repair was done we went to the marina cafe for lunch - we all pronounced it a good value light lunch.
There were some seriously large properties at the start of our journey back along the river. All things I missed with the camera as I was at the helm on the way to Buckden.
Back through Huntingdon
whilst we used the village moorings - short grass is easier with Monty, plus my hay fever is bad, so long grass is best avoided if I can.
So here we are 'travelling together apart'!
I inquired whether these intrepid swimmers swim every day - the answer 'this was the first this year'!
When we looked back to Cleddau later in the evening we were glad we opted not to moor on the meadow - cows are not the best neighbours when you have a dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment