Saturday 21st July

We woke up to a lovely morning with a mist over the basin.  It’s mornings like this when I realize how much I really do enjoy this boating game – I just wish there had been more of them this summer.  We moved up to the lock and filled up with water and then, along with Wandering Star, we went into the lock and out onto the River Ouse.  The Ouse is a lovely river much nicer than the Trent (sorry Trent lovers!) it reminded me a little of the Thames.  It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to get up the river and then 25 minutes to get through Naburn Lock as we had to wait for 2 other boats that left Selby just after us.

As we passed Cawood there used to be a castle which was owned by the Archbishops of York.  Cardinal Wolsey visited and was arrested here in 1530 for high treason.  His fate is recalled in the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” according to the Nicholson’s Waterways Guide however there is no mention of this on Wikipedia.

We pulled over for lunch at Naburn Visitor Mooring but decided to stay put as we were a little concerned that the moorings in York might all be taken by the time we got up there.

It was a glorious afternoon – dare I say it almost too hot at times!!!  We sat in our deck chairs and read our books and had a wander to the local caravan park to get some bread and milk.

After dinner we walked across the lock island to look at the weir.  There is a gauge by the lock showing the flood levels since the 1990s – in 2000 it must have been up about a metre from the ground let alone the river level!  We walked to the weir and you could certainly see that the water was a good half a metre above it and was crashing over.  It made me wonder what it must have looked like a week or so ago.  The water is very brown but clear – I gave my plants a good soaking of it this evening so I hope they like it.