Welford Arm to Foxton, 8.4miles 1 lock.

We had a couple of nice day's down the Welford Arm. Tuesday we stopped on the water point and delivered 17 bags of House Coal to the Wharf Inn. As there were no moorings available afterwards, we moved further back down the arm near the Welford Marina Entrance and moored on the 48 hour moorings. After some lunch we walked back down the arm to the boat yard where we met up with Les and Neil who run the marina and yard. We wanted to enquire about dry docking Hadar for her next blacking in 2011.
Wednesday morning, I had a phone call enquiring about coal and would we be able to meet them at the water point, so we had to turn Hadar around at the winding hole and return to the water point, to unload another 11 bags for another customer, who was collecting by truck. it is all part of the service. After all that exercise Keith and I reckoned we deserved a pub lunch, so having spruced myself up a bit, we walked back to the Wharf Inn, where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch and pudding. Keith and I both had Chicken Tikka with rice and naan bread for our main meal. For pudding Keith had Bread and Butter Pudding with Custard and I had the Lemon Cheesecake with Ice Cream. It was all very scrummy. We then took a walk into Welford Village. The entertainment for the day was watching workmen take down the footbridge across the entrance to Welford Marina. We wonder now how long it will be, before a new one is put up?
This morning (Thursday), we woke to a beautiful morning after a night of heavy rain. We set off at 9am on a lovely morning cruise. On our jaunt we saw four Kingfishers, in all their splender. This time of the year they are so easy to spot. We also saw a couple of Heron's and Buzzards. The views across the valley were spectacular this morning. Our cruise ended at the top of Foxton Locks, where we will be moored for a couple of days. We got chatting to the new BW lock keeper and made him aware that we would be up and down the locks until the end of March, as we endeavour to sell coal to boaters, households and pubs along our stretch. Although on the 23rd November till the 18th December Foxton Locks will be shut for maintenance work. So our patch will be cut down for four weeks.