Middle Levels - Day #5

 Monday 19th May 2025

Ramsey mooring to Whittlesey

The sky jockeys were aloft at precisely 09:00, but we had been busy since 08:00. When Brenda awoke, she pulled back the curtains above the bed. Still not fully awake she was surprised that the bedroom window was frosted glass - however it had been broken by a flying stone from the strimmer last evening. On close inspection, the hopper of the window had a message and phone number written on it. The person strimming had apologised and left a contact number for us.

 

Graham phoned the boat yard and reported the incident and then emailed them the pictures of the message and broken window. He then went to Tescos and purchased a roll of brown parcel tape to stabilise the broken pane so that we could continue our trip, a thing he had to do once on Jannock. He had booked a passage through Stanground lock at 10:30 tomorrow so that we can visit Peterborough Cathedral. We didn't want to be delayed by waiting for a replacement window to be sorted.

 

Back up the arm to Lode End lock but we decided we didn't :- A. like to look of all the weed on the other side and B. need to get close to Stanground so that we can make our booked lock passage. We turned right onto the Old River Nene and followed it through Benwick to the junction with Whittlesey Dyke.

 

The rural cruise in nice sunny weather was wonderful. Frequent brief glimpses of Kingfishers until ... a juvenile flitted around at the front of the boat and then sped off. Two adults were also hanging about supervising their fledgling, then they were also gone in a flash. Lovely to see. All along this section there are numerous WWII defence bunkers strategically placed on the river bank, unlike those on the main canal system, they are not covered in graffiti. 

 

Turning left into Whittlesey Dyke, we continued on over the 'crossroads' with Bevills dyke and the Twenty foot drain and on to Ashline lock. This is an awkward lock as you need to remember the key for the enclosure (guess who didn't) and then empty the lock again once you have passed up through it. Your boat has to wait for you because there are fences preventing the lock crew from getting to the mooring at the leisure centre which is on the offside.

Once through, and lock emptied, we moved across and moored for the night. We were happy to see that there is a waterpoint at the leisure centre mooring that isn't shown on the maps or guide. We filled our tank as that was one of the things we needed to do tomorrow at Peterborough.

We went for a walk to the town centre where we found another Wetherspoons establishment which also had Graham's favourite beer on tap - result! A good meal and a couple of pints found us back at the boat where we met a local councillor buzzing around on his mobility scooter. He was busy litter picking and had to come to view the 'brand new' water tap. We chatted to him for about 20 minutes before he went off to continue his task. This is a nice mooring with pcnic tables under some trees if you want a bit of shade.

G & B