Heading back upstream

Coming back into Peterborough

Gongoozlers galore at Orton lock.

We decided to spend another night on the visitor moorings at Ferry Meadows.

Dog in a Doublet lock

Heading down the straight and wide channel that leads to Dog in a Doublet.

A squadron of swans kept flying and landing in front of us.

The condemned visitor moorings, with their rotting decking, removed mooring bollards and fenced off pedestrian access. We had no choice, we had to stop to check coolant levels. The
Dog in a Doublet lock can be seen ahead.

We had planned a visit to the Dog in a Doublet pub next to the lock, but our way was blocked by locked fencing.

Tina

So, we got back to Stanground lock with the BMC 1800 running a lot cooler, Tina was on duty, if you use this lock, woe betide you if you don't follow her instructions to the letter!

That night we moored on Peterborough Embankment again, John and Rita's daughter Andrea lives with her family nearby, we had a lovely barbeque then went out for a few beers.

Next day, we decided to head for Dog in a Doublet lock, where we wanted to moor up and visit the pub.

Heading back to Peterborough

On the Old River Nene we past this Round Table sign for the Greenwich Meridian

So sorry that this is such a long drawn out tale! LOL!

Back to Whittlesey

On return to Whittlesea I phoned my friend Tony Head, who runs a local bus company, and asked if he could help us get our belts? He came up trumps ;o) I did a solo pub crawl around the town, starting in The Boat Inn, crap beer and a bad attitude by the landlord when I pointed it out. So back to the Letter B, great ale, great company. then I went to Hub's Place on the square, a community pub that was opened by a local lottery winner, a great place to go, the ladies' darts team were still playing when I left at 01.00 a.m.!

In the morning we headed to Wetherspoon's George Hotel on the square to use 'the facilities' and to get their cracking veggie breakfasts.

I noticed that the veggie brekkie was a much better deal with two eggs instead of one, three hash browns instead of two and a tasty veggie sausage to replace the bloodless meat option.

After this fine brekkie we left Whittlesey, heading for Stanground lock.

As we approached Briggate bend we saw a tatty-looking boat moored in a strange spot, as we passed they shouted "Have you got jumpleads?" We pulled over and dug our starter pack out, minutes later, in clouds of smoke, it started. This photo shows them moving off in a blue haze!

March, a strange place.

Ashline lock needs a Middle Levels windlass and like Stanground lock is not quite wide enough for two narrowboats.

WooHoo, something interesting, a bridge! LOL!

The view opens out once you reach the old River Nene

On our cruise to March, John and Rita suddenly slowed and stopped, they had snapped a belt, luckily John had an old belt with a bit of life left in it. but he struggled to get a part number off it. This made us realise that we should pick up some spares while we could still read the part numbers on the old ones. tried to get the numbers off and realised that the raw water pump belt was not tight enough. After noting the part numbers I tightened the belt. But after a few hours it was loose again. Had we found the reason for our overheating problem?

Bill, Ben and Little Weed man the border of march

John posing on the moorings we took for the first night

That bloody man is still posing! LOL!

We slipped into March, stopped at the service point and noted that the moorings in front of The Ship were taken, so we moored on the moorings opposite the service point.

It was very noisy with drunk/druggies shouting, swearing and threatening each other, but nobody bothered us.

Next day we were woken by Middle Level  weedcutters zooming past, rocking boats with a tidal wave. We then moved onto the moorings below The Ship, and walked around the town, visiting the market, we had seen an amazing number of mobility scooters wizzing about, it seemed there was a mobility scooter rally next to the market, but no, it was a stall selling them, never seen so many anywhere else in the UK.
 

Our preferred moorings below the lovely Ship pub

We had a great night in The Ship and after breakfast headed a bit further to find a winding space and headed back towards the Nene.

Whittlesey, a nice place to moor

While we were slowing down, with the umbrella wrapped around our prop, another narrowboat came roaring up behind us, passing moored boats with a tidal wave. I allowed him to pass us, but John decided he was out of order, and refused to allow him past. 

So John & Rita reached the E.A. Whittlesey moorings first, the other narrowboat could have moored there too, but he threw a hissy fit and and carried on towards Ashline lock.

After we cleared the prop, we moored up next to John & Rita and wandered into town. We went to the Letter B pub (they say that there were so many pubs in Whittlesey that they ran out of names and started to name them after letters!) It's a nice friendly pub with good real ale. As we left, the rain returned with a vengeance and we got soaked on the walk back to the boats.

There's also a Wetherspoons on the square, which came in handy the next morning, as the public loos are out of order! Here is a top tip, when getting brekkie in Wetherspoons, we get veggie breakfasts, for the same price you get 2 eggs instead of one, 3 hashbrowns instead of  2, tomato, mushrooms and the veg sausage is a lot tastier than the anaemic meat sausages. You can always get an extra portion of bacon.

The next evening, I walked to The Boat Inn, but was disappointed by a bad pint and the landlord's refusal to sort it out. So it was back to the Letter B and then on to Hub's Place, a pub opened by a lottery winner.