Retirement with No Problem

Little Paxton-ish to Brampton Mill, River Gt Ouse, 6 miles 2 locks

I enjoyed our week at Paxton, but today we were on the move, so it was a fond farewell to our base for this week, for sure we will be back.

‘Tis a lovely part of the river this, it’s fairly wide in places and desperately narrow in others.. we are not in any hurry, nobody is in any hurry.. queues at locks, yes well sort of.. but it tends to be “You go first.. we have no rush”.. spose that’s why I like it over here during the summer.. Most are the same, if you want to rush then this is not the place to be..

Chatting away to people at locks today.. well the two locks we went through anyway, one lady was saying that over 100 people have booked in their boats to go through the Denver complex on one day next year on the way to the IWA Festival at St Ives!!! (edit: updated link)  Jeeeeeeeez, at the moment Denver complex would be lucky to get 5 boats through in a day what with the tides and the silting.. 100 boats???  Ha who is kidding who?!!

Buckden Marina were very helpful today.. I wrote them an email earlier in the week asking if they had an elsan tip out… Young Rebecca Carpenter wrote back apologizing for the delay in getting back to me, telling me on our arrival, that she had been off this weekend camping… well, for sure, we can let her off for that.

“Yes we do have a chemical disposal point
available to passers by at the marina.  We do not currently have any charges
for this service at present.  On arrival at the marina walk from the
riverbank towards the clubhouse then follow the road down to the left of the
building.  You will reach a wooden building on your left side which is our
toilet and shower block.  The chemical disposal point is behind the men’s
toilet block and so if on the first side that you come to.”

I thanked her today for her very helpful reply, there are not many marinas that bother to reply when asking what services are available.. so there is one to note for elsan..  She had some gas today too.. ran out last time we passed.. my job!!

Just another thing today too.. There is a permanent hosepipe at this marina, and there were boats moored in the way so it wouldn’t reach our watertank at the front.. had to turn round in the river to get water.. now if that was on the canal system people would have got upset with boats in the way of waterpoints, over here there are often boats moored on or close to waterpoints due to the fact that there are not THAT many places to moor, but everyone happily deals with that and finds ways of getting water to the boats.. so laid back!!

Lucy goes for her op tomorrow to remove the ball joint of her hip after her accident last May.. for those looking at this blog for the first time, you need to look at the May archives on the left and some of July and this month to see what I am talking about… Moored at Brampton Mill Goba Moorings means that I can catch a bus to take her back to St Neots first thing tomorrow.. I do hope they let her out tomorrow afternoon.  They said she would be OK to go on a bus after the op.. she is going to take a while to get over it I think.. after all she has had 6 anesthetics this year now. that is 6 too many for my liking..

Anyway, you can see what is on my mind tonight..

It’s OK here though, nearby there is a waterwheel which is working…..

On the left of this pic… I do hope it is generating something, I need to do some research to find out.. but I did do some research at the pub in the same picture, nice place what with all the flowers etc, fancied a meal there, but on checking it out, oh my the prices are very high.  I expect it is very nice, and what with a huge caravan site just in the background as you can see, and the clientele they get.. they can charge what they want.. a steak meal around £14 meant that we peeled the spuds tonight on No Problem!