We havent blogged for quite a while now mainly because we havent done much! We spent a week in the Great Barford area enjoying the warm weather and visiting Bedford on a couple of occasions, We also got the bus to adjoining villages such as Sandy and Biggleswade. Got lucky at Sandy with a pub called the Sir William Peel which just happened to be having a mini beer fest!
We spent the easter weekend by the side of the river in a lovely spot near to the village of Brampton. From here it was a short walk to the town of Huntingdon and again the weather was fantastic for April. Plenty of BBQ's and the odd cold wine and beer!
Susie visited us on Saturday 23rd brought down by our South African friend Wynne. Had a nice afternoon with some ribs on the bbq and again the cold drinks were flowing. It was good to catch up with them and thanks to them both for popping in.
Easter Monday we left our mooring to head to St Ives where we had been told the market was something special. We overslept by an hour which made our journey twice as long! Instead of being early we hit the mass of weekend boaters hire boaters and anybody else we that could find something to float on the water! We had three locks to get through and had delays at all three with the plastic cruiser brigade making sure that their precious boats were not 'bumped'! Ok I admit that we did see some nice ones but there is a balance between being over cautious and getting out of the way!!!
We had a bit of a drama arriving at St Ives when a water point clearly indicated on the map was found to no longer exist!! We moored alongside the main quay with about a hundred people watching and went to look for it but alas no luck. We managed to find one at the other end of St Ives in a little cul-de-sac where there was no room for us to turn around but at least we got water! We had to reverse about two hundred yards to get back on the river and the wind had picked up. Narrowboats dont like going backwards and like the wind even less! They act like a brick in the water and go where they like but we managed to get back out onto the river. I have to say trev has got handling Merlot down to a fine art, am very impressed.
While we were filling with water we saw three or four people looking a bit worried and seemed to be chasing a goose. They said it had got onto the road and they were trying to usher it back into the water. They seemed very concerned and considered it a great success when they mangaed to get it back in the water. What they didnt realise that as it is mating season the goose had probably been keeping out of the way because as soon as it hit the water not one but two ducks clambered onto her back and ......................after a lot of quacking and feathers flying they left but it meantime a queue had formed and it was easy to see why the goose had chosen the road and not the water!! Still I suppose the 'do gooders' went home having done their good deed for the day. The goose would definately disagree!!!
The market at St Ives was very average. Just a 'normal' market just bigger and not very good. As the weather is changing this week we decided to use our Cob and cook outside for prob the last time for a while. We bought a large chicken and with the use of 12 charcoal briquettes we cooked it. Took just over 2 hours and worked really well. Leaving here tomorrow to head to Earith so will post more later.
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