It’s half-term and our friends, Anne-Marie & Pierre have travelled up from Petersfield to visit us for the week. They have been with us before on hire boats but this will be the first trip on our floating home. The Plan is to journey East to Foxton and then down the arm to Market Harborough.
A cold but sunny day as we head out of the marina, turn right and head for Welford. One water vole spotted straight away and then the count was on for kingfishers –
I think by Monday, we had spotted 6 at least!
Pierre – a very laid back chap from Bordeaux, is keen to steer.
Group pic – except Viv, holding the camera, as we begin the Foxton Flight, first thing Monday morning.
Nice time of the year – not busy! And no grockles
Pierre steers through some of the locks.
Sharp right turn at the bottom – not done this before – avoid hitting either of the moored boats, past the swing bridge and on to Market Harborough.
Ever elusive those “Martin Pescadores” – they really did get at least 6 sightings and in the end we saw one just posing for us on the side of the canal:
Our destination reached – just around two hours from Foxton, a very rural section with hardly any other traffic and into the basin to turn round.
We came here about 30 years ago on a hire boat and saw a dirty, derelict terminus with broken buildings – not a nice place but now, it’s been prettified in the extreme with a hire boat base, restaurant, boater facilities (shower, toilets, rubbish, water, elsan & pump out) and mooring. Our friends Colin & Gail on Evenlode (see blogs passim on the Liverpool trip) are moored here for the winter.
A nice destination and just right for a week’s trip. Here one night and then we mosey back . . . not sure where we’ll stop – maybe Welford we’ll see!
It’s now Tuesday. The girls have gone into town to browse. Time for me to do some blogging. After a prawn salad lunch we chugged off to just before Foxton locks. No wind today and so we saw some very picturesque scenes along this lovely, rural canal. So undisturbed by man – no roads, cyclists or disturbances, ideal for kingfishers and boy, did we see so many. Even two at once – getting them on film is even harder but with burst mode set on the camera we got a few:
First one – a bit to the left of middle:
Next one, spotted in the tree, yes we can see you!
Next one – close up on a branch:
Final one – with reflection!
It is a very rural stretch . . .
