Monday 6th October
Sitting out a wet day.
Catching up with blogs and emails
James went for a walk round Foxton Inclined Plane in the
evening and saw a water vole.
Moored above Foxton
Locks
Horse sculpture
Foxton Inclined Plane
Very few boats went past
No boating today
Tuesday 7th October
Foxton to Crick
James set out to walk to Foxton Village to post a birthday
card to Oliver. At the foot of the
locks he found a post box by the pub, so he came back earlier than anticipated.
Early morning at the
locks
We set off straight away, and a Canal Club boat pulled out
at the same time, about four boat lengths ahead. It was probably his second day, as he would have come from Market
Harborough. He was quite slow, but thankfully
he saw us and pulled over for us to pass.
There was intermittent sunshine but it was quite chilly as
we travelled, although we had no rain. There were few boats moving, but we did
meet another boat on a blind corner, and we had to sound the horn. Fortunately we both had quick reactions and
we churned up a lot of water in reverse gear.
Early morning views
As we entered Husbands Bosworth tunnel, the warm moist air
inside the tunnel caused James’s glasses to fog up!
Husbands Bosworth
Tunnel
We passed lots of pleasant mooring places around the
junction with the Welford Arm, but we pressed on as more rain was forecast for
tomorrow, and we needed to get to Crick to hire a car (and buy some milk).
This section is very remote and rural, with some lovely
scenery. We saw several kingfishers.
We stopped at Yelvertoft to fill the water tank and empty
the rubbish, before setting off once more for the final two miles to
Crick. We pulled in to Crick Marina,
where we bought some coal, and 50 litres of fuel. We also took the opportunity to empty our cassettes.
Crick Marina
We moored a little further on and walked into the village to
visit the Co-op.
Hugo brought us a live mouse as a gift. James released it back into the hedge.
0 locks, 17 miles, 1 tunnel, 6hr00
Wednesday 8th October
Crick
Another mostly wet day today. There were the remains of a mouse on the floor, so the first job
was to clean that up.
Then James looked into the detail of the Data Protection Act
and prepared a report for the BCF committee.
We made our plans for car hire the following day and decided
that we needed a taxi to get us to Daventry so that we can make an early start
soon after 8am, when the Enterprise office opens.
The rain paused late in the afternoon, and we went for a
meal at the Wheatsheaf. It was a fairly limited menu, but the food was well
prepared and very good. They had two
real ciders.
No boating today
Thursday 9th October
We had set the alarm for 6am. We walked to the entrance to the Marina to meet our taxi to take
us to Daventry. We were there by 0750,
and they had already opened their doors and were waiting for us. We were on the road by 0803, in a Vauxhall
Corsa 1.4. Thankfully it had cruise
control.
We went across through Southam on empty roads, and joined
the M40 northbound, to connect with the M42 and M5. There were no hold-ups, although there were some short 50mph
sections where the lanes were narrow.
We made good time and arrived at Westerleigh Crematorium
(Bristol area) with ten minutes to spare for the 1030 funeral for Jenny
Mullinger. It was a very sad occasion,
because of the many unanswered questions which follow a suicide.
We all drove to another venue for a memorial celebration
followed by soft drinks and sandwiches. It was good to see Graham and Sheila,
and John, who, with us, were for many years part of a very special church cell
group with Jenny and her husband David.
We drove back across country without touching a motorway,
and visited Tesco in Banbury to stock up, then had an Indian meal in an
upstairs restaurant in Southam.
Excellent food. BYO booze, but
we didn’t know so we had water.
Back at Crick we parked in the entrance to a field as the
only public parking near to the canal was locked at night.
No boating today.
Friday 10th October
Crick to Norton Junction
James went off at 0730 to take the car from its overnight
parking place (thankfully before the farmer found it) and he drove to Daventry
to return the car, and was given a lift back to Crick.
We dried off the pram hood, inserted our tunnel light, and
set off south through Crick Tunnel.
Leaving Crick
Emerging from Crick
Tunnel
On arrival at Watford locks we found that we could go
straight down, so we decided to do that, rather than use the facilities at the
top of the flight. There is a single
lock, then a staircase of four, then two more singles. By the time we had finished there was a boat
coming up, and another waiting at the top.
Watford Locks
We cruised down past Watford Gap services to Norton Junction,
where we turned and reversed towards Buckby locks, and we found a mooring in
the sun, where we could dry our washing for a few hours.
We trundled our cassettes to the sanitary station, and
disposed of our rubbish, but we decided to leave our water tank until
Braunston. We cruised to a frequent
mooring of ours, just past Norton Junction and bridge 10, where there are
lovely views, and a little less noise from the A5 and M1.
Norton Junction
Hugo brought a present that had died.
There was a beautiful sunset. A little later we were
relaxing comfortably, when we heard a commotion in the water at the stern. Hugo was having some swimming practice. He
got himself out OK and ran along the path to the bows, where, thankfully, the
doors were shut. This gave us time to grab a towel and shut the stern doors
until we had dried him off a bit.
Sunset over Norton
Junction
7 locks, 5 miles, 1 tunnel, 1 mouse, 2hr35
Saturday 11th October
Norton Junction to Braunston
Ottawa went past at 0755 – a BCF boat.
As we prepared to set off, two boats came past, and then a
third. We had a convoy. In Braunston
Tunnel there seemed to be more bends than last time, although if there were to
be any alterations, surely they would have straightened it out, not made it
more crooked? We met three boats coming
the other way in the tunnel.
At the locks we found ourselves sharing with Jim on Henrietta. There was a fish symbol on the bows, and Jim
was a regular churchgoer, but he said BCF wasn’t for him.
At the second lock there were boats 1 and 2 waiting to come
up, and they left the third lock open for us.
By the time we got there, two boats 3 and 4 following them had closed
the gates, emptied the lock, and were just starting to come up in the lock,
which took water out of the short pound, causing the waiting boats 1 and 2 to
list at their moorings. We had to wait
while boats 3 and 4 coming up emerged from the lock. It didn’t take us long to go down in the third lock, and boats 3
and 4 were still waiting for their lock.
Because of our insignia on the boat we don’t usually moan at other
boaters, but Jim had no such inhibitions.
They really should have waited.
Further down the locks we discovered that we were following
a single boat. We were originally following two boats, so either one stopped
halfway down, or another pulled out between the first two and us.
Locking down to Braunston with Henrietta
Jim pulled over before the marina, and we moored just past
the stop house, where there were bushes for Hugo.
6 locks, 4 miles, 1 tunnel, 3hr15
Sunday 12th October
Braunston to Norton Junction
Henrietta went past, heading up the Oxford Canal
As we walked to the church this morning we discovered that
the boat in front was BCF boat, Petroc.
We hadn’t realised the night before. We took a path across a field up to
the church, where there was a family service. The hymns were chosen to
highlight things that we can give thanks for: Creation, Jesus, the
resurrection, The Holy Spirit. Marian
Thomas not there, but we met Gill and Geoff from Petroc, who were in the
row behind us. We suggested they come with us for lunch at the Millhouse, but
they had had a huge breakfast on board the Gongoozlers Rest floating cafe. Lunch at the Millhouse was good value. From
our table overlooking the canal we saw Petroc go past.
The path to the
church
The knobbly spire
Family service
We would have stayed for the rest of the day, but the
forecast was wet for tomorrow, so we trundled a cassette to the nearest
disposal point, reversed to the stop house water point, reversed further to the
winding hole at the marina entrance, where we turned to face the other
way. The first part of the Marina,
under the old iron bridge, is the original route of the Oxford Canal, which
followed the contours towards Napton.
Braunston Marina
Entrance
We went back up the six locks on our own. At the first lock there were two community
boats coming down, and they had lots of willing helpers to operate the
lock. There was a single boater going
up two locks in front, so most of the locks were against us.
We had a clear run through Braunston Tunnel, which took us
16 minutes. When we arrived at Bridge
10, there was just one space left.
Ottawa went past again, returning to their mooring in
a marina just up the Leicester arm.
We had another amazing sunset. Hugo brought us a mouse as a present. This one had a water
burial.
Another sunset at
Norton Junction
6 locks, 4 miles, 1 tunnel, 2hr45
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