Retirement with No Problem

Today – Ferry Meadows to Peterborough, River Nene, 3 miles 1 lock
Sunday and Yesterday – Moored Ferry Meadows

So here we are then, finally made it to Peterborough!  Here are the stats for those that like stats…..

River Nene, Northampton to Peterborough – 58.2 miles 37 locks 41 days!

I will let you work out the average per day… I never take the time cruised so you can’t have our average speed…. anyway it was just slow!!

After a lovely bank holiday weekend full of sunshine (and the hottest place in the land),  this morning we had rain.  There was a bit of a break after lunch, so we decided after all that we would go on down to Peterborough.  There couldn’t have been much water left in the tank anyway. We hadn’t filled up since Fotheringhay, that must have been a couple of weeks ago!

Our mooring for the bank holiday was just inside that backwater on the left of this pic.  I spose I walked a good 15 miles over the weekend, a beautiful place which is Nene Trust.  The rangers were errrrrr corrrrr worth a look too!

Just the one lock to negotiate then before we cruised into Peterborough, and no problems with the last one, a new routine to keep NP off the side…. well at least we are practiced for our next visit down this river, and for sure there will be one…. I have enjoyed the river very much, loved it!

The river keeps itself to itself on the outside of Peterborough, you wouldn’t even know you were on the outskirts, then at the last minute round the corner is this….

This the town centre!  Just under the town bridge, the brick one in the distance here, we found the EA facilities…. ah water at last!  We filled up and I spent the rest of the afternoon doing washing… 5 loads in all!  I put some light rope up all round the boat and now NP has turned into a drying room, well the weather outside is unsettled, in fact no sooner had we arrived here than the heavens opened for a couple of hours!  We are quite baking here tonight, well we have the fire lit you see to try dry everything off!

Since we left Northampton, there have been no facilities for rubbish disposal at all…. apparently there is a rubbish disposal somewhere here hidden away in the amenities block which we found contained the tip out station…. this was after Vic opened just about every door that was locked to see if he could find it!  I think one of the locked doors contains the refuse area!  I shall investigate tomorrow.

We got quite clever with the rubbish disposal, well we had to!  We just used carrier bags and only half filled them.  Every time I went for a walk with Lucy I would take one with me…. I always managed to find a waste bin on my walks…. good job too.  Anyway it’s about time the EA put some places on this river to dump rubbish!  All service facilities on this river are dreadful… it’s no wonder not many people come down the Nene.

So here then the perfect family scene…. taken this evening as the sun gave a nice end to the day… I guess it is two families… they all seemed to get on so well too, a happy little group this was.

Tomorrow we are going into the centre for a bit of shopping… Vic has promised me a new fishing rod for my birthday… and I am told there are lots of cards to collect from the Post Office here too… umm I hope Vic puts his hand in his pocket for a nice meal out tomorrow… now that would well compensate me for my extra year!