Saturday 12 January 2013

Waterways World

We happily subscribe to Waterways World and love the Pull-Out Guides for the regions. This month (February 2013) we have more interest than usual because there are two articles on our boating area: one describes the "Cruise of a Lifetime" - 344 miles from Llangollen to the Little Ouse - and a guide to the Middle Levels.
The long cruise starts in Wales and makes its way across England to the river Nene (where we are now) describing the experience as "drifting timelessly through rural middle England, past quaint stone-built villages and historic watermills". Oundle (our mooring) is "the icing on the sumptuous Nene cake". So we look forward to the boating season with additional rose tinted glasses - but actually, it's true!
The Middle Levels are said to be: "remote adventurous cruising" and more than just a transit route between the Ouse and the Nene. Indeed this is what we found. It also describes the problems of weed clogging the prop, which we experienced in 2012, to our great frustration.
See our earlier blogs for example here for the Nene and here for the Middle Levels as we saw them.
Oh, and one other reason for enjoying the article on the  west to east trip across England - it ends with a lovely pic of Patience in front of Kings College Chapel, taken by David Coppendale when we navigated the Cam in 2011.
So here's another glimpse of that trip along The Backs of the colleges in Cambridge. One of the blog entries for that trip is here. We recommend the eastern region, Nene, Middle and Great Ouse!


Thursday 3 January 2013

Truly Awash

Boating in 2012 was a trial, with drought up to March and flood thereafter. There are too many blog entries here called "Awash" and "Nene Floods" for my liking!
There's an excellent page from the BBC here showing the rainfall stats and musing on the climate. 
They do rather better than the Met Office to put across complex data for public consumption.
A nostalgic look back on our floods in the eastern region takes me to
May 1st
May 9th
not forgetting the Royal Pageant (very wet in the afternoon)
June 30th
July 13th
November 22nd and pretty well every entry in November!
 Actually it looks as if we did nothing but moan about rain all year!
Here's to a brighter 2013.