Living less than 50 miles away there was no point in rushing as we did not want to arrive before the 1.00pm witching hour! So, we left home around 11.30 am and meandered our way across country rather than the more direct route via Bedford and the A1. The route using the A45 and A605 is OK with the possible exception of Olney which is in desperate need for a bypass but seems to be at the bottom of the list in terms of getting it built. Olney, pronounced by some of the more upper crust residents as O_ney is a delightful town, famous for its pancake race, which has a French feel about it. Despite its wide high street parking is nose in on both sides which narrows the two traffic lanes, especially for larger vehicles.

Once through the town the rest of the journey was quite straight forward and we made a stop at Peterborough Services which I think I have mentioned before has a new section with good caravan/motorhome parking, assuming of course the parking places have not been taken up with other vehicles! Whilst we were there a couple of guys were pinning notices up saying what sort of vehicles can park but they are being ignored by many commercial vehicles. However, I do have a bit of sympathy with the commercial drivers as where they are meant to park has no easy access to the services, requiring a long walk round.

After our coffee stop, we made the short journey to the site. Found a pitch not too far from a service point and settled in for the next three nights.

Wednesday 20^th March. We thought it was going to be a wet day but after a bit of rain early on it remained dry for a few hours. This allowed us have a wander along to Nene Park to get some fresh air. Unfortunately, the days of circumnavigating the lake is perhaps behind us but we still managed a reasonable walk. As a reward we had a coffee and cookie in the Park Café which was very nice. At just over £12 this treat is getting expensive, especially if you do it every day! We did miss a trick as I think you can get a 10% discount by showing your membership card.

Over the years we have had a whole series of low wattage electric kettles. We have tried normal kettles of about 2Kw which are fine on 16 amp sites but can trip the electrics when you only have 10 amps. So, the current kettle has been awful as it leaves a plastic taste and smell. We have had to resort to using a little camping kettle that we can use on the gas hob.

Thursday 21^st March. Another dry day with the sun trying to break through although the cloud seems to have won! We walked the other way today, down to the Notcutts Garden Centre. One thing about the Ferry meadows site is that if you are here for a weekend or even slightly longer there is enough to do without taking a vehicle off site. En route to the Garden Centre we stopped at Overton Station on the Nene Valley Railway, just to have a look round the station. When services are running you can take the train to Peterborough in one directions and Wansford in the other. We carried on to the Garden Centre which had some nice plants but it would mean carrying them all the way back to the van which we were not really equipped to do. As a Garden Centre it is quite modest compared the massive ones you find elsewhere. We had a coffee and scone in the café.