Anniversay Awards Quiz part 2

 Spoiler Alert!  The answers to yesterday's quiz about the first part of our Best Ever Cruise lie at the foot of today's questions.

So here we go with another 10.This time we'll be covering waterways somewhat less travelled by narrowboaters so the questions will not be so much about 'where is it?' but 'What's this that we saw?'. If you hadn't already guessed from yesterday's quiz, we're about to enter the Middle Level Navigations and cross the Fens.

1 After filling in forms to cross the Middle Levels and getting our special windlass we squeeze under the lock footbridge and enter what seems like a new world of high sided narrow dykes. The crossing of the Middle Levels is a strange experience and a bit of an adventure. One of the first things we see  is not especially encouraging

standing on tiptoe we can just see over the sides of the dyke and spot a large factory in the distance.  It's a well known national brand using crops grown locally..  Can you guess the name of the company? You might just make out the logo on the factory side

 2. Not long after we arrived at Whittlesey and what  I think this might be the tightest bend on the entire English canal system. The infamous Briggate Bend approached from a narrow concrete sided corridor.

 Don't try to get your 70ft widebeam round here. We only just managed on Herbie!

and so on to Marmont Priory Lock one of only 5 locks on the middle levels. It seemed to be run by a lock keeping family who all rushed to help us through.  There seems to be an expectation to give them a tip so I gave the old man a pound.

The question is - how many miles of navigable water are on the middle levels 47, 67 or 100?

3.  The next day we pass through one of my very favourite places. With the waterway seeming not much more than a ditch we pass through the middle of  two charming small villages where it feels like the waterway is the High Street and the bridges are very low. Maybe you can name the villages, but if not can you say what county we're in at this point?

3.  And so onto another lock where you have to book a passage. This time to leave the Middle Levels.  

Opening hours for this lock are short and variable. Do you know why? 

4. Next morning the scene could not be more different. We said goodbye tonarrow waters and poky little bridges and locks. Now things looked a bit more serious. The infrastructure around here is responsible for flood management for a good bit of East Anglia

  

Gone are the cloudy days and the narrow dykes. As if my magic, our world changes and the sun is out and the river is wide. 

5 Before long we see this building in the distance.  What is it?

here's a shot I took of the inside

6.  Next day we passed through the permanently staffed Hermitage lock. Where the river beyond becomes tidal for a while

It was on that tidal stretch that we first encountered an unusual river dweller. Who or what?

7.  We were now in the waters where most boats are plastic

Leaving the tidal section we passed through Brownshill Staunch - another magastructure and on to one of our favourite waterside towns which has a more famous namesake in the west country. Can you name it?

 

8.  Next we drop into the marina where our son Richard lives on his boat.  In the clear waters of the marina we see this fish next to his boat.  What species of fish is it?

9. Miraculously Richard actually takes Herbie's helm (he never moves his own boat)

as he steers us to our next overnight stop in a little backwater just beyond Huntingdon in the village of ?? It shares part of its name with a city.

How nice is that?

10. Out here on the east Anglian rivers, what we canal folk call Lock Paddles are called something else. Do you know what?

Eventually we seem to have left the concrete structures behind and passed through the lovely Great Barford Bridge

 And so we reached our furthest point, by this time we had travelled a surprising 258 miles and worked through l63 locks! And of course we've still got the return journey to come with some super detours. though our return route has some super detours.  Annoyingly I don't have a photo of our final stop so I'll give you a proper quiz question. Our final stop was in Bedford which is the limit of navigation on the River Great Ouse.  

11 The Great Ouse is more often seen by narrowboaters as it passes under a tall canal aqueduct a number of miles upstream.at what place?

It had been a lovely trip thus far, but the best was yet to come.

For anyone who tried to guess yesterday's answers, here they are

Starting out from our base at High Line Yachting on the Slough Arm we cruised out the the grand Union and turned northwards through Cowley, Uxbridge and Denham and to one of favourite spots shown in Question 1.  This finds us moored up just north of Black Jacks Lock. A lovely peaceful spot except perhaps for the calling of the pair of peacocks living just across the canal.

Question 2 shows Herbie being hauled out of the water to be blacked by Darren at Cowroast Marina just south of Tring

Question 3 finds us moored up just three or four paces from the door of the excellent Globe Inn in Old Linslade 

Question 4 takes us a lot further north where we rested Herbie on a pontoon at the bottom of the garden of a lovely American lady at the top of Buckby Locks

Question 5. Turning south again after a break we cruised back to Gayton Junction and turned into the Northampton arm where we encounter those 17 narrow locks.

Question 6 is where we drop down onto the River Nene with its flood control locks and stopping places like Cogenhoe where the cows came to investigate. The whole Nene basin is prone to flooding and the river water needs to get away so the topgates of the locks allow the water to spill over and the bottom guillotine gates are left raised up.

Question 7 has us approaching Thrapston Bridge where according to local custom the pronunciation of the river's name changes from Nen to Nene

Question 8 brings us to Fotheringhay.  Just past the bridge is the spot where in 1587 Mary Quenn of Scots met her end at the hand of the axeman.

Question 9 shows us the embankment at Peterborough where we wait for our appointed time to enter the Middle Levels

Question 10 shows us leaving the Nene and entering Standground Lock which is the entrance to the Middle Level Navigation.  This is where you need to purchase a special windlass to fit their unique paddle mechanisms.