Davy's On The Road Again

Remember this old Manfred Mann song ??

Manfred Mann and his Earth Band - quite appropriate really as we set off again, complete with tunes in our Sony boombox.

Pulled the pins and started cruising the Nene after a respite of several weeks due to work commitments.

We had forgotten quite how beautiful the river is.

We stopped at the Kings Head at Wadenhoe - one of my favourite places. The pub is fine, but the view is - wow.

The last time we stopped here on the way in to the Fens, we were overjoyed to see Jim Stead and his boat Lorna Ann.

Jim is a megastar in the canal and boating world and his website is the wikipedia of the waterways.

My own rules precludes me from linking to him, as he has the dratted Google ads, but I'm sure you'll find him if you're that interested...

Incidentally, a bit of canal tittle tattle or what was called Scuttlebutt in the navy.

I hear that Jim is selling (or has probably sold) Lorna Ann. Apparently, ill health (his wife rather than Jim, I recall) was forcing him to abandon the watery roving life.

The picture on the right shows two boats coming through Wadenhoe Lock.   

There is a lovely walk from the pub mooring, past the village school and up the hill to the old church.

Unfortunately, for such a beautiful place, it, like so many other beautiful places, suffers from vandalism and the church doors have to be locked.

We so much prefer the rivers to the canals.

The rivers have so much more life and are quite timeless.

As benign as they look in May, when the sun is shining, they can be beasts in times of heavy rainfall.

The levels and the rates of flow can pin you down for weeks, sheltering in marinas and off-line moorings while swollen, angry, brown waters rage past to find the sea.

 

 

 

So, as the sun goes down on Wadenhoe, we head westwards, to glory, greatness and the Carlsberg Brewery at Northampton.