End of the Line

We have reached Bedford and the title is not strictly true because the end of the navigation is actually a place called Kempston Mill which is about two miles further on.  This, however, is not easily reached due to low bridges.

Bedford - we have never been here before.  In fact I've never given Bedford a second thought - I've always considered it to be a rather inconsequential sort of place.  How wrong can you be!  True, we haven't ventured into the shopping centre itself - at a glance it looked like any other reasonable high street - but the river frontage is the best we have seen anywhere.

Approaching the town the river splits and creates a large island which has been landscaped with paths, grass, a bandstand and connected to either side with lovely footbridges.



 Good mooring has been provided by the town council both sides of the lock but we have been told by other boaters that, unfortunately, at night "undesirables" hang out there and it's not a good place to be.  Such a shame.  They have overcome a similar problem in Banbury by employing security guards - perhaps Bedford Town Council should consider this too in order to attract boaters to come and stay.

One side of the river frontage is called "The Embankment" and, if the sun had been shining (which it definitely wasn't - it was raining heavily!), we could have felt we were in a continental town!
Left:  Town moorings
Right:  Part of "The Embankment"

The flower displays are absolutely spectacular.
There is a water course paralleled by an esplanade of trees paralelled by
beautiful flower beds.
Bedford?  Lovely place








There are plans to create a new canal between Bedford and Milton Keynes.  This will link the River Great Ouse to the Grand Union Canal and will create a really good navigable ring.  It would seem that this idea, however, has been in the 'offing' for a long, long time already.
Let's hope it does eventually happen.

Changing the subject:  
Weather-wise our luck seems to have run out!
Even he or she is fed up with all the rain and wants to come inside!             "Please!!"

It has now decided to rain every day!
This is probably because:-
1.  Gill and Will are coming tomorrow to spend the rest of the week with us on the boat.
2.  Rodney is also going to come for a cruise .......... soon.
3.  We are as far away as we can possibly be from the relative safety of the canal system - rivers go into flood!  We have to go back on the Nene which has a very bad track record for flooding ............ and some extremely low bridges!