Forwards to The River Nene

On Sunday morning we positioned ourselves opposite Gayton marina ready to tackle the Northampton Flight the following morning.  Gary and Joan came to spend the day with us and brought with them a big bag of dog food we had organised to be delivered  to their house!
We resigned ourselves for an early start in the morning and aimed to set off at 8am (early for us!).  Some insomniac boaters in front of us, however, set off at 6am!!  This, of course, meant that all the locks were against us.
The Northampton Arm Workout:-
Miles:  5
Locks: 17 - 12 in quick succession


We worked as a team and the adopted procedure was something like the following:-

- A  Walk to Lock 1.  Fill the lock and open the gates.  Jog (yes, JOG!) to Lock 2 to raise the paddles.  JOG back to Lock 1 to help J empty it.  Get J on his way.  Close the gates and on to open the next lock.

- Jog to Lock 3 to raise paddles and jog back to Lock 2 to repeat procedure.

- Jog to Lock 4 and Power-Walk back to Lock 3.

- Jog to Lock 5 and walk briskly back to Lock 4.

- Jog to Lock 6 and just walk back to Lock 5.

- Jog to Lock 7 and ramble back to Lock 6.

- Jog to Lock 8 and shuffle back to Lock 7.

- Jog to Lock 9 and hobble back to Lock 8.

- Jog to Lock 10 and stagger back to Lock 9

- Jog to Lock 11 and limp back to Lock 10.

- Walk to Lock 12 and don't come back at all - let him get on with it.


Can't really remember what happened after that except that the water was crystal clear, very weedy  and teeming with fish.  We kept going so that we arrived at Cogenhoe on the Nene at about 5.30pm to be greeted by our friends, Ken and Sandra.  The Nene is also crystal clear, VERY weedy and teeming with   fish and beautiful as I remember it.  Really good to meet up with Ken and Sandra and looking forward to spending some time cruising with them.