One summer we decided it was time to venture onto the waterways between Northampton, Ely and Cambridge. As this area of the country was new to us, we asked the Hotelboat Mafia who to talk to. Everybody recommended Fox Narrowboats as being the experts in and on these waterways. They were wonderful, and gave us lots of great tips about which local towns and villages we should visit, and which of the little rivers were worth investigating.

We loved our six weeks cruising this area – the waterways are so different to any others we’d travelled.

These were the things we and our guests loved most about cruising from March to Ely:

1. Super-friendly lock-keepers, who came out to help us work through the locks, sometimes with their whole family!

2. Surprise seal sightings on the tidal stretch between Denver Sluice and Salters Lode.

3. Big skies – Canals and rivers tend to follow the contours of the land, meaning lots of lovely rolling hills, but no stunning horizons, not here though!

4. Upwell and Outwell – the two villages that run either side of the Well Stream, it’s like cruising down the middle of the road, and the names raised a smile too.

5. Wind farms – there is something very surreal about boating through fields of huge wind turbines.

6. Kingfishers, kingfishers, c! We recorded over 30 sightings in one day – no photos though, you’ve got to be quick to get a picture of a kingfisher.

7. The River Nene… pronounced Neen at one end and Nen at the other, obviously.

Without the help of Paula and the team at Fox Narrowboats, we wouldn’t have had nearly such a good time; they helped with the planning, gave us a great mooring and full service for our guest changeovers – they even took in our huge Tesco shop for us, when we were a little bit late arriving – it completely filled their living room!

If you’ve never been, then you should call and book your trip today, I wonder how many kingfishers you’ll see?

This is a guest post by Corinne Thomsett

http://www.uk-va.com

The post Seven Surprising Differences We Discovered Cruising the Middle Levels appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.

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From Saturday 29th to Monday 31st August the Inland Waterways Association is holding a major waterways event on the river Nene in Northampton.

Northamptonshire is known as the county of ‘squires and spires’ and Northampton is great to visit at any time, offering plenty of cultural heritage and historical architecture. There are ancient churches, impressive buildings and bygone battle sites. You may also visit the shopping centres, parks, museum and art gallery.

But on the August Bank Holiday this year up to 200 boats, including leisure, trade, heritage and working narrowboats will be moored in the marina and along the river front as well as an array of smaller craft, sailboats, windsurfers and ribs. There will also be trip boats and water taxis available for festival visitors.

This year’s Northampton Festival of Water celebrates the 200^th Anniversary of the opening of the Northampton Arm in 1815 which connects the Grand Union Canal to the Nene in Northampton, creating a navigable channel to the East Anglian waterways and the Wash. This connecting waterway enabled working boats to transport ironstone, limestone, grain, flour, coal and timber.

This year’s boating event will promote Northampton’s riverside, to acknowledge the value of the Nene to the town and its people and to encourage more people to use the waterway for boating and leisure. The event will include live music, Morris dancing, a German Shepherd Dog Display Team, children’s fairground rides, face painting and balloon modelling. There are also a variety of talks on waterways topics, a boater’s quiz and an open mic night. (More details on the IWA website.)

Through Northampton boaters on the Grand Union Canal can access Peterborough, Ely, Cambridge, St. Ives, Huntingdon and Bedford using the Nene, Middle Level and Fenland waterways. These less-travelled waterways of the East of England are quiet enough for a relaxing boating holiday or fishing trip. However if you have extra energy to burn off you could also try canoeing, kayaking or countryside cycling. Fox Boats hire boat base is ideally located for exploring these little-known waterways. Check out Fox Route 3 and Fox Route 4 which take you onto the River Nene.

For more tips on events and places to visit in Cambridgeshire sign up to get regular updates from our blog. (We never sell or share email addresses, we’ll just send you helpful articles about boats and boating!)

History of IWA Narrowboat festivals

The post Don’t Miss This Bank Holiday Boat Festival! appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.