St Neots to Great Barford - on my own again

22nd July 2016

This morning I drove Joel, Shannon (and Koko) to Cambridge, so they could get a train home. The early part of the journey was fine, but getting in and out of the station was hell, due to the massive roadworks and renovations going on in the whole area around the station. Eventually, when I got back to the boat it was well after noon and I had a splitting headache. I decided to have a couple of Paracetamol and a glass of water and try to get going.

The river is quite wide in places and very level and calm. I went through 3 locks and the going was easier than I had expected it would be, just taking my time in the locks, mostly on my own, i.e. with no other boats locking up with me, and making steady progress. Eventually, I stopped at Great Barford, just downstream of the beautiful bridge, and on the public moorings outside the pub. A quick wander around showed up plenty of parking very close to the river, so I went back and got the van from St Neots.

Usually when I take the moped I ask Google for cycling directions, pop an earphone in one ear inside my helmet, and follow the voice guidance, a policy which has taken me along some very interesting byways and paths, and although I have occasionally had to turn around and find an alternative route, it has been very rewarding to travel these routes. However, today I rather incautiously asked for road directions, and 20 minutes later found myself guided up to a roundabout and onto the A1. On a 50cc moped with a 30mph top speed. Not clever, not safe. Not the A1M, I might add, but still 2 lanes wide with lorries travelling past at 60mph. I stopped on the grassy verge and looked at my phone for a minute, searching the maps for any alternative route that would be a little safer, but really there was nothing that didn't involve a 40 minute detour.

I realised at this point that I didn't have a lot of choice over my route, but what I did have was a choice over where to ride. The A1 has a layby road alongside parts of it here, and a pavement, although I only saw 2 people on my 4 mile journey all along this horrible stretch of road. Yes, I admit it, I rode along the pavement. It was do or die. I pottered along at 15mph or so, as unobtrusively as possible, and when I saw my 2 pedestrians, I pulled over and switched off, waiting for them to walk past me before continuing on my way. The pavement was cracked and broken up in places, and very rough. There were a lot of kerbs to cross, and there was lots of debris along the way, general rubbish, planks, rubble etc, that the little moped coped with surprisingly well. Finally the hell was over, I approached and negotiated a large roundabout, subsequently and the roads were smaller and at a 40mph limit, so I felt much safer getting back into the middle of my lane and riding on towards St Neots. It's not surprising how well the moped seems to cope in town, but how much less at home it seems on the open roads. Still, back to the van safe and sound, a much quicker journey to Great Barford in the van, and a great parking spot alongside the church yard.

By now I really had a bad headache, so I popped a couple more Paracetamols and had another glass of water, and a hot shower, and crashed for the night.

St Ives to St Neots

21st July 2016

Up quite late around 8am and had a lazy breakfast. There was enough hot water left after washing up for 1 shower, so I put the engine on to heat up enough for another before we left. It's actually best for the helm to have the first shower, and then just let the crew members have theirs as we go along. That way you are not running the engine just to heat water, which is quite wasteful, and the batteries are usually fully charged after a couple of hours running anyway, so it's a bit of a waste of diesel, and will also bring the oil change service forward as well.

We left at 10:30 and ran upstream aiming for St Neots, encountering several of the ubiquitous Nene locks on the way. I am sure I have mentioned this earlier in the blog, but Nene and Great Ouse locks are almost all identical in layout, with a few exceptions. There is a bottom (downstream) guillotine gate which is a vertical gate, electrically operated on most of the locks from a padlocked cabinet on the lock side. The top gates are a more traditional layout, with a pair of V gates pointing upstream, with manual paddles (slackers) operated by a windlass. Apparently all the guillotine gates used to be windlass operated (phew!) but these days the few manual gates on the Nene have a wheel, which is still quite hard work. The locks are all quite wide, and would accommodate a widebeam canal boat easily enough. Some enlarge even further after the gate with a "bulge" in the middle and can take several boats at a time, especially as you get nearer to Bedford.

The whole navigation system of the two rivers was falling into quite a state of disrepair by the 1930s, and very close to being abandoned, but its potential as a transport system was seen by those in power with approaching war in mind, and a huge renovation project was undertaken, which enabled these two rivers to serve as a major goods artery along with the canal system throughout the second world war.

Half way to St Neots, we found a very quiet marina - at Buckden, and managed to empty the rather full toilet tank and find someone to unlock the pump and fill us up with Diesel. This is a very pretty stretch of the river, and I took a lot of photos. Eventually we arrived in St Neots, and moored up on the 48 hour moorings next to the Priory Centre. This is Joel and Shannon's last night on the boat, so I sent Joel off with Shannon to have a nice meal out together. Last time I did this they went to Subway, so I stuck a £20.00 note in Joel's hand and told him to take her somewhere nicer - to a pizza restaurant at least! There were a few boats on the mooring pontoon, and people around, so as there is safety in numbers I decided to lock up the boat and go back to get the van in the evening cool. It was a lovely motorbike ride along the B roads, as the sun went down behind the trees - I often find myself stopping and pulling out my compact camera for a snap or two on these journeys. The biggest problem is finding a quiet side street to park in, but I am getting better at it, often spotting a suitable location as I ride out of the town on my moped or bike, and then hopping back on it for the 3 or 4 minute ride back to the boat once I am parked.