enigmatic

I've given up shy of the railway bridge (clear it was going to be tight... and it had rained recently and I didn't fancy spending the next week upstream of the railway bridge!) before but made it through and up to the pictured mooring in Kempston the second time. What looks like a winding hole there isn't really a winding hole for anything approaching narrowboat depth, but about 250 yards downstream the wide part is a lot deeper Wouldn't consider that last stretch worth damaging cratch boards, solar panels or other roof protrusions for, though it's a pleasant enough extension to a trip otherwise Not sure if the lovely village after St Ives was the Hemingfords (with the mooring) or Houghton (with the lock), but make sure you pop into the other one on the way back!

You're coming up to the best bit of the river

Probably because they want people filing in their standard report template in Microsoft Word rather than receiving collections of custom webpage layouts with separate images, or royally buggered up layouts in OpenOffice documents or scans of well informed but completely illegible retired engineer scribbling...

Tbh the only 48hr moorings where it's actually likely to be a significant problem are non CRT private ones run by town councils who might have the motivation to actually try to collect fines for overstays. I think that noncompliance with 48hr limits elsewhere is sometimes a bit inconsiderate, but not when staying for a hospital appointment!

I dunno, when both my ecofans are going it's practically a helicopter!

I hope she sounded her horn and extinguished all lights except the pilot light

I think the reality is you will end up in queues at locks on the Llangollen, but you're not in a car stuck on the A30, you're on a boat when you can make a pot of tea and sandwiches and step outside to have a look around and chat with other boaters It's slow going at the very pretty bit at the end too, but again, who cares... boats aren't fast!

I'm told when it comes to inflatables, the advantage of a £10 lilo from B&M is that when you hit something underwater you only lose £10. And possibly your dignity, I guess.

Reminds me of encountering a cow that was somewhere between mournful and irate after being for a swim and getting lost between bridges (I didn't try to dry it out or put it back in the field, but I did warn some towpath walkers!)