Thrapston

Just 7 miles and 4 locks today as we arrived at Thrapson. We were told of this mooring at Irthlingborough but is has a tricky entrance to a small inlet right adjacent to a bridge. We were advised to go in backwards as this would make the exit easier being in the flow of the river and so close to the bridge. Ignoring all good advice we went in forwards! There is only really room for two boats to moor alongside the edge and there were already two there. One was an awkwardly moored cruiser and a narrowboat who kindly beckoned us to moor alongside. Within 15 minutes two more narrowboats arrived just as the cruiser was leaving and so they breasted up in its place. As our bow was firmly in the rushes, Keith decided to turn the boat around in a now restricted area. He did it beautifully much to the admiration of the other boat crews.

We had a walk around the village calling in at each pub to sus out the food prospects on a Sunday evening. You guessed it, they don’t cater after 5pm! Then someone told us about the Woolpack. On walking through the garden we met up with the crew of the other two boats and had a delightful couple of hours supping beer and exchanging tales of our river experiences.