It has been a while since I was last able to publish the blog, however I will now try and bring you all up to date.

On Monday last we left Great Barford after being marooned there for 12 days due to the river being in flood and moved off back to St Neots where we planned to stop for a few days. On leaving Gt Barford we said our goodbyes to Martin and Clare who by now had become good friends, with the promise that we would keep in touch. Also we left Nick and Polly on NB Thomas Ryan 2, who were staying for another day or so, and made our way to the lock on the start of our journey. The lock being prepared by David and Chloe, (father and daughter) who were canoeing back home to St Neots after travelling from Bedford.

The lock cleared we were on our way, and the river had quietened down a lot and was flowing at a comfortable rate for our passage. We made our way at just over tick-over allowing David and Chloe to keep up just a short way behind, and by the time we reached Roxton Lock and started to prepare it, they pulled onto the pontoon.

 It was here on our way upstream that the water was flowing very fast as the river narrowed, but today it was flowing normally as we left the lock heading for where the A1 crosses the Great Ouse and our last lock of the day at Eaton Socon.

Along this stretch we caught sight of a couple of Kingfishers darting from tree to tree, making for their favourite fishing spots, although all we saw really was a dash of blue and orange as they skitted  passed just above the water. As this was a longer stretch we had pulled away from David and Chloe and they were lost to us in and amongst the bends in the river, however on reaching the lock it was not long before they came in to view so we waited for them to catch up. All that remained now was a short run into St Neots and the town pontoon where we planned to stop, and as we tied the boat up David came along side and invited us to have a beer with them at The Anchor, by the town bridge.

After a good chat and the beer drank we returned to the boat and settled down for the night (David if you read this, thanks Buddy). With the weather being hot and sunny the pontoon was full if kids, sunbathing and swimming in the river, so we had to get them to move up before we could moor.

Tuesday; another hot day forecast so we moved off the pontoon and moored on the opposite side by the park, which was ideal for the animals to get out of the boat. At around 10.30 Nick and Polly arrived and moored behind us (they just could not bare to be away from us) and we stayed there for the next two days, sweltering under the heat of the sun. Nick and I did some fishing later in the day and sat out till well after midnight, even though they had planned to move off in the morning at 06.00. Waking on Wednesday to wave them off I was surprised to see very little movement and as it turned out their cat, Nugget, had not returned so it meant yet another day with us. Following the hot weather of the day before, we built an awning off the side of his boat, using sheets and out two fishing brollies to offer us some shade from the seething heat. Apart from a little shopping we sat under the awning and chatted for most of the day, drinking tea and having a great laugh. It was fishing once again the second night, waiting for the cat to return, but alas no cat despite calling for him all day. Around midnight Nick went looking and found him hiding in the long grass by the spinney, but he was to scared even to move and soon shot up a tree and would not come down. Much later Polly went to find him and with a lot of persuasion he came down and she got him back on the boat, all of the strange noises of the day must have terrified him. (Thank Nick for the fishing lessons).