Most of our stay at Kirkstead Bridge was very quiet..Petroc is at the far end of the pontoon. Later on Saturday we were joined by a couple of other boats but it was nowhere near as busy as we had expected.
Our visitors arrived in time for coffee on Saturday, Brian & Joy and Jerry. Apart from Brian whom Geoff & I had seen in the last couple of years it was considerably longer since we had seen either Joy or Jerry. In fact Joy and I decided it was 37 years ago.......but it was lovely to catch up with old friends. We repaired to the Petworth Hotel in Woodhall Spa for a good lunch, punctuated by plenty of old war stories from the gentlemen....well not quite the war. The Petworth's claim to fame is that it was the Officers Mess of 617 Dam Busters Squadron. In fact in the grounds they have the remains of one of Barnes Wallis' bouncing bombs.
We had decided on an early start to Sunday as we wanted to get through Lincoln so at 7am we were en route. It was yet another lovely run on this river, the sun shone and we gently made our way to Lincoln.
Still a lot of duckweed but we just seem to cut a path through it
Just before Bardney Bridge we pass the Sugar Beet Factory
The factory is partially closed. They no longer process the sugar beet. You can see more about it at http://community.lincolnshire.gov.uk/thehistoryofbardneysugarfactory
We paused above the lock at Bardney to use the sani station and when we continued we could see Lincoln Cathedral sitting atop the hill from some considerable distance away.
They seem very fond of sculptures along the Water Rail Way which runs along the river from Lincoln to Boston. Yesterday it was animals, today humans......??
Whilst Geoff was watering Petroc etc at Bardney I took Barney along the path and in the distance I saw what I thought was a lady walking her dog....however on reaching her she turned out to be made of wood and the inscription at the base read `And down she went and found a boat`
Despite checking out the website http://www.woodhallspa.org/leisure_waterrailway.html for the Water Rail Way I cannot find who she was meant to be.
Another of the sculptures along the way
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We didn't pass many boats today but this was one....I wish Barney would learn to climb up on the roof...
And so we reach Lincoln. Just one lock to go (Theres only 2 altogether on this waterway.)
We had company in the lock
We moored in the centre so that we could buy the Sunday Papers. Sadly there was not a visit to the market as it is Sunday.
Soon on our way again heading for the Glory Hole
After passing through the Glory Hole and round the bend we come to Brayford Pool, but first through another bridge. As you enter the pool it asks the question `Where are you going`
From the other direction it asks `Where have you been`
We took our time cruising through the pool as we had seen the trip boat leaving ahead of us so we decided to keep our distance as he would be turning somewhere.
For the rest of the day boats appeared from everywhere, we saw more boats than we have seen for weeks, however is was a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Luckily when we reached the Pyewipe pub about 2 miles along there was room for us to moor. Nearly 2 weeks ago we had moored here for the night and had an excellent meal with John & Rosi and so a return trip for Sunday Lunch seemed in order. Another excellent meal and an afternoon watching boats going every this way and that, mostly plastic jobs but a few narrowboats.
All in all an excellent day apart from the weather forecast..............we are booked to go out of Torksey early Tuesday morning but things are not looking good. However we shall position ourselves tomorrow and see if the forecasters are right or not. There is talk of much rain and strong winds...that is definitely not our weather for the tidal Trent...............
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