Retirement with No Problem

Aldreth to Stretham, River Great Ouse, 5 miles 0 locks

The cruise between Aldreth and Stretham is perhaps one of the remotest on the Great Ouse.  Hardly any human habitation can be seen from the river as it winds round and round the seemingly flat countryside.

So. in the end this morning we decided to pull the pins and head off only for the rain and wind to intensify, and a lot of concentration was needed to keep No Problem to the outside of the bends making sure the wind didn’t blow us into the side.  There would have been no way that we would have been able to get away if we stuck on the bank I’ll tell you!

But even though concentration was needed, there were many times today where I was distracted from the job in hand to marvel at the diverse variety of wildlife on this particular stretch.. today seeing oyster catchers, golden eye ducks, geese and swans, and even a lovely pair of egrets..

Luckily enough I managed to capture one of them for my albums..   What beautiful birds they are too, I will never tire of this particular part of the river, and am almost tempted to turn around and do it again tomorrow!!

I saw a couple of unofficial mooring places too which I have marked out for a possible mooring next year.. ha, I have no doubt we shall return!!

Put the pins in at the Lazy Otter around lunch time and sat down to some soup I made earlier and some more of the superb home made bread made this morning as we cruised along, then sat down to watch an afternoon of Olympics.  I was annoyed the mens hockey team lost their match, they were very much the better team….

But I think the quote of the day came from our silver medalist in the ladies cycling road time trial, Emma Pooley, who, when asked by the reporter if she had phoned her family, said “Yes I spoke to Dad, but then my credit ran out on my phone”…. Gosh!!  And to think that Michael Phelps is gonna earn a million dollars from Speedo at these games!!