Thursday, 26th, Friday, 27th, Saturday 28th June
On Thursday, we left the boat at Oundle, hired a car and drove to Warwick to stay with our friend Cherry. In the evening we went to one of our favourite restaurants, Piccolino's. On Friday, Trev went to the funeral in Nuneaton, and I shopped in Warwick. After lunch, we set off back for Oundle, lugged all the shopping across two fields to the boat and returned the hire car. It certainly made sense to sell our car. The hire car cost GBP30 for twenty-four hours. Even if we still owned a car, we would have had to hire one, as ours wouldn't have been anywhere near where we are at the moment.

On Saturday Catharine & Mamdooh came to see us and brought the post. We walked in to Oundle to sightsee and have lunch. They left around teatime and we stayed on the same mooring.

Sunday, 29th May
At last we can get going again! We've been at Oundle for a week, and are keen to get moving. The countryside grows lovelier as we move along. Today was utterly peaceful and we felt refreshed by it all. We moored up at Fotheringhay. We'd been looking forward to this spot. It looked idyllic in the guide and it was at least that! First we filled up with water, and then we moored up in front of the church, which is just a short field away from the river. We hadn't been there long before a man appeared with a Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup tin and a request for GBP3 mooring fee! We knew beforehand that we would have to pay, and there were signs in the field to say that a mooring fee would be charged. As it must be one of the loveliest spots in England, we didn't mind at all.

In the evening we walked up to The Falcon for a drink. It's a lovely pub, but rather pricey. The village is so pretty, real chocolate box stuff! We peered through in to a garden and saw a helicopter parked there!

Monday, 29th May
Today is Bank Holiday Monday, but there is nothing here to make us realise it. There is no traffic, no crowds, no noise! We walked up to the church, which is quite magnificent. It's very large for a village church, but apparently is only one third of its original size. Fotheringhay was an important place in times gone by. Mary, Queen of Scots was executed here, but the castle has gone. All that remains is a mound and a small pile of stones.

We continued along the Nene, sharing the locks with a young family out for the half term break. At Wansford Lock we met the river manager, Roy Smith. He asked how we were enjoying our visit to the Nene, and we said we were thoroughly enjoying it all. He seemed delighted to hear that, and was keen to tell us all about the river and its facilities. The weather has been good today, warm and sunny and not too much wind. I won't keep on about how beautiful it all is, for fear of boring you, but take it as read! We moored up at Wansford, next to a very high bank. I really needed an abseiling rope to get on and off the boat!

Wansford is some times called Wansford-in-England, because, so legend has it, many years ago a man fell asleep in a haystack. The hay stack fell in to the river--or the river level rose, I'm not sure which, I wasn't there at the time, you see--and washed the haystack down the river. When the man was rescued he asked where he was and was told "Wansford". "What--Wansford in England?" our country peasant enquired. "The very same" he was told. Believe it if you like! It's a nice story.

Another story, which is totally true, is the line on the tree near where we moored, drawn by a boater who was marooned there in a flood in 1996. He painted a line on the tree to show the water level, and it's jolly high! The locals rowed out to him with provisions! Well, the line is there, I saw it, though I suppose the tree has grown quite a bit since then, and so presumably the line has grown with it!

Tuesday, 31st May Wednesday, 1st June
All good things come to an end, and today we reached Peterborough. The Nene goes on to The Wash and the sea, but we turn right and go out on The Middle Level. The scenery all the way to Peterborough was delightful, but then things took a turn for the worse. Peterborough is not an attractive city, its only redeeming feature is its cathedral, which is stunning.

Our first priority was to get the toilet holding tank pumped out! There had been no pump outs since Northampton, and things were getting rather urgent! So we found the pump out on the bank and unlocked it. It didn't work! Fortunately, there was another, and this one did. The only trouble was that the hose was not very long. We had to have the boat absolutely directly opposite to it to reach our pump out valve, and this wasn't easy, as the mooring rings were all in the wrong place for us to tie up and the current was moving us along. Eventually we managed it by tying the boat up to some notice boards!

One of the reasons we spent an extra day in Peterborough is that we had to give forty-eight hours notice of our intention to go through Stanground Lock to The Middle Level. So we've booked to go through tomorrow morning at 10.15.

Thursday, 2nd June
So today we set off for the next stage of our exciting adventure--The Middle Level. I really don't know what to expect from this part of the trip, except it will be very flat! We continued along the Nene, looking out for the turn. All we saw was a no entry sign. After a while, we decided something must be wrong! We had gone far further than the map indicated, and still there was no turn...... Slowly the penny dropped that somehow we had missed the turn. We were now on our way to The Wash! Fortunately the river was wide enough for us to turn, but the wind wasn't keen to assist. It blew us against the bank and it took us ages to get back in to the middle again.

Now we had our eyes peeled for the turn. We found it--we should have turned where the no entry sign was. The sign referred to one of the arches of the bridge. No entry under this arch, but yes entry under the next one! Duh! So I 'phoned the lock keeper to say we were on our way, and she was fine about it, and said lots of people miss the turn! She said she had the gates open and we should go straight in. Even when we arrived at the lock it was not immediately apparent that this was it. There was a sign, but it was so small that you had to go right up to it it read it, by which time you were already at the lock! So, in we went. We had to fill in paperwork to say who we were, etc. and buy a special windlass which will do for the Middle Level and The Ouse locks. For some obscure reason, one is expected to tip the lockie a pound, and so we did that too!

(I've often thought about this principle of tipping. When I was teaching, no one ever tipped me! And I'd looked after all those children for five hours every day, giving their parents a break! I wonder why it's become the custom to tip some jobs, but not others. Coach drivers are another case in point. Is it because one is so relieved to have got back in one piece? And no one tips the doctor.......)

However, we left Stanground Lock, and set off. The Middle level, I quickly came to realise, is just a very big drainage ditch. It was constructed in the 1600's to drain the land, to allow summer farming and prevent winter flooding. You may remember that we had been warned by numerous people that we "would have fun" on the tight bend at Whittlesey. We were assured that we 'just about make it' as long as we manoeuvred backwards and forwards, and I stood at the front fending off with a barge pole! Well, all of those dire warnings came to nothing. What those people didn't know is that I have an ace steerer aboard, under the name of Trevor. He steered us round that very tight bend in one go! To the manner born! So that was one of the worries ticked off on my list!

We continued along the Middle Level and I must say that, for boredom factor, it scores 100%! There's nothing to see, the sides are too high. From time to time I stood on the roof of the boat, and all there is is vast expanses of land, growing crops. We passed McCains--presumably making loads of oven chips. We also crossed the Greeenwich Meridian line, but didn't need to alter our watches.

There is hardly anywhere to moor. At Whittlesey there was a short length of mooring already occupied, and that was all we saw. So when we got to March, we decided to pull in to Fox's Boatyard to fill up with diesel and stay overnight. And that is where we shall leave you now. Tomorrow we have an appointment with Salter's Lode Lock--the one which is only 60' long! I spoke to the lock keeper there today, and he said we shall go out at 3.45, because that is when the water is level on both sides of the lock and he will open both gates and we shall go straight through! Straight through on to the tidal Ouse for about a mile, and then we through Denver Sluice and back on to the non-tidal Ouse, Come back and see how we fared!