Sunday, April 20, 2014

Spring is Officialy Here and The Holiday Season Gets Underway

We had a great open day and met some lovely people, so thank you to all those who came along and took advantage of the Cadbury's Creme Egg giveaway!


The boats are ready to go and waiting for this year's first customers.  Our complimentary trays this year have got jams from The Pickled Village and free range eggs from the smallholding just up the road.  


While we were busy getting everything ready, I noticed the ducks were checking the underneath of a boat that was out being blacked nearby. They like to pick off the freshwater mussels that attach to the underside of the boats!

As well as the boats, we have also been busy getting our campsite ready, putting up the Yurt and the Camp Kitchen tent.  New for this year we have a Tipi which we will be taking delivery of in May. Most of the people that stay with us are enjoying canoeing holidays on the Nene.  You can book canoe and camp holiday packages on the River Nene from Canoe 2 and we provide the accommodation for you! You can also book our Yurt and Tipi via our website at Indigo Camping.


When all the work was finally finished on the campsite we thought we would have a go at a bit of outdoor cookery in the new fire pit area that we've built - the sausage and bean hotpot was very nice too!


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Bob the Bucket and Countdown to the Start of the Season

Last week we both completed our RYA (Royal Yachting Association) training course.  Pete from Lincolnshire Boat Services popped down to Oundle Marina on a beautifully sunny Monday morning and after a cup of coffee we set off down river to practice the 'man over board procedure' or MOB as it is known.  Here we are fishing Bob the Bucket out of the water. We repeated this several times as he just couldn't seem to stay on board!  I'm glad Bob the Bucket volunteered to go in, as the water was rather chilly!


As it was such a nice day, we decided to head back upriver towards Lilford and show Pete what a lovely river the Nene is and he was very impressed!  


Although we could happily have gone cruising for the rest of the day, there was work to be done, so we set off back to base and waved goodbye to Pete, who will be back to do our First Aid refresher course later in April.


The boats are now starting to look like holiday boats again, the engines have all been serviced and put back together, the painting is nearly finished, all doors and hatches have been repainted.  The boat cleaning is also well underway with Helen making sure everything is cleaned within an inch of its life and I have been busy ironing all the curtains and covers.  Bruce has been getting artistic in the workshop and has been busy with a new design on Sumo's back doors.

Sumo has now arrived in her new position in the marina and Sammy will be joining her this coming Friday.


Nicky's chicks have started to hatch out, this little one could be laying the on board free range eggs later in the year!


Don't forget it's our Open Day this Saturday 5th April, so if you are around the area pop in and say hello and don't forget to pick up your Cadbury's Creme Egg!