The Lady back at The Hayling View
The Lady back at The Hayling View

Being the only boat moored at Priory Park, we had a very quiet night and then took our small boats to the Town Quay for more shopping after investigating the river upstream which had been incorporated into a riverside park. Later I researched all about St Neots UDC in the library after which we cruised downstream to St Neots for food shopping and then home for a service visit.

A very quiet night at Priory Park, Bedford. There was not a single boat to share the moorings there, which is a great shame and underutilisation of facilities. We set off on our sports boat and dinghy again, through Bedford lock but, before we moored at the town quay to do our shopping, we cruised upstream and saw how the banks in the Bedford Ouse have been almost completely incorporated into a Riverside Park. This trend of preserving the banks of the river and providing public accessibility is to be applauded will stop we.

We had coffee at Debenhams and lunch at McDonald’s. Whilst the family shopped, I went to Bedford library and read all about the history of St Neots Urban District Council which was very interesting. This afternoon, we cruised all the way downstream to St Neots, arriving just in time to do some shopping at the Waitrose supermarket. Then finally home to moor at The Hayling View for the night on our service stop. This evening, Diana did lots of washing etc. and I caught up with some paperwork. Daniel did a little studying in his room for his Chemistry exam re-take next week and Di and I then returned to The Lady to watch the last episode of the TV drama, ‘Dirtwater Dynasty’. We went to bed very late as a result and this time we put out a mud weight to ensure that the youths would not have The Lady drifting downstream with us on board this time!