We heard from the neighbouring boat at Great Barford that the obstruction above Willington Lock should be removed by 1400, so after lunch we set off. When we got to Willington Lock we found that a boat which had passed us at Great Barford earlier was just exiting the lock, it having been unchained only a few minutes earlier.
Our way was now clear to reach the head of navigation, provided we could get under the low bridges.
Before Castle Mill Lock we passed under another oft-travelled road, the A421.
Of course, driving over the bridge one has no idea it is really a viaduct, and an impressive one.
I shall have to try to get a better shot on the way back.
Castle Mill Lock is the one clearly visible from the A421 and is probably the deepest we encountered on the Great Ouse. The paddle gear, here called penstocks, are positioned half way along the lock side and allow water in and presumably out in the centre too.
On the final approach to Bedford we were surprised by this pyramid.
Having squeezed under the first of several low bridges we entered the last lock of our Great Ouse journey upstream.
The plaque commemorates the restoration of navigation of the Great Ouse in 1978.
Turning left out of the lock we travelled alongside the Embankment and found ourselves in rowing country (not that you can see any rowers in this photo).
But we weren't stopping yet, oh no. We were going as far as we could, which meant Kempston. The river got narrower and shallower … until suddenly the bow rose up as we hit the end of the road for us.
We were able to reverse off easily; we had gone up the right fork.
There was plenty of room for us to wind our 55' boat; we know a 60' boat has done it (because we met it at Cardington Lock) and I reckon a 65' boat might just be able to do so.
Back in Bedford here's one of those low bridges. And some rowers.
We tied up on the EA 48 hour mooring just back from the water point having completed a successful day's cruise.
If only the Bedford-Milton Keynes Waterway were built. Then we could nip back onto the canals in a day. As it is we will have to retrace our route down to Denver, across the Middle Level and up the Nene to Northampton.
2 comments:
Which, if any, low bridges, prevented you from making progress any further?
Mike, none of the bridges was too low for us. We stopped because we had reached the last winding point and the branch we tried became too narrow. We could have tried the left branch but didn't as it looked as though a fallen tree would block the route. It might have been OK, but we would have had to reverse had we gone any further upstream.
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