The judges have been burning the midnight oil and the arguments flowing back and forth but now the white smoke comes out of the chimney and we have a winner for the Herbie Awards 2009 Best Cruising Waterway. See two posts down if you missed the nominations and descriptions.
And the winner is . . . .
The River Nene
What a cracker! I have read numerous reports of people refusing to go down the Nene because of its fearsome reputation after heavy rain. We too were prepared to call it off this year if such conditions prevailed, but it was hot and sunny both going down, and coming back up a few weeks later.
I cannot recommend this river highly enough. It flows mostly through Northamptonshire, which is a county rarely spoken of in scenic terms but is a true middle England gem. Unspoilt villages perch on the slopes of the high ground set well back from the water meadows, Cogenhoe, Woodford, Denford, Oundle, Thrapston, Wadenhoe, Fotheringhay and more.
Bridges large and small
some unusual lock gates
Well done Nene. We'll be back another year.
Tomorrow we'll turn our attention to waterside gastronomy as we search for Best Meal in a Waterside Pub.
2 comments:
You don't think your judgement was clouded - if that's the appropriate word - by the fact that you had such good weather?
(The first time I came to Norwich was in similar conditions and I thought it was a fantastic place. well, I can tell you it rains here too! (But it's not a bad place really. Just too far from everywhere else.))
Quite possibly, but we cruised the rest of the summer in fine weather too (believe it or not), and the Nene still wins! Not many places are all that nice in the peeing rain.
Re Norwich, when people ask me how far it is I always say "twice as far as you think!"
Post a Comment