OFF WE GO AGAIN.

 

The beautiful blue Adriatic and me

We had a great holiday in Zadar, the weather was fantastic and we got to swim in the clear blue, but chilly Adriatic. We ate some lovely food and drank a lot of beer. So all in all a wonderful time.

Now just the facts of our first cruise, we travelled 235miles, did 217 locks, spent 3 miles in tunnels all in 8 weeks.

We are heading North East on the next leg of our cruise, Ripon is the goal. So starting on the Coventry canal, then a short sojourn on the North Oxford before joining the Leicester Line of the Grand Union.

Week 1 and 2 Swan Lane to Market Harborough. 62 ½ miles, 29 locks, 2.2miles in 3 tunnels and travelled on 4 canals.

So after shopping, washing, and generally sorting our stuff, we set out on the Wednesday (came back off holiday on the Saturday evening). But only got as far as Hawkesbury and the Greyhound Inn. The Captain was one happy bunny as they had XK Dark by Byatts brewery on, as well as the standard Theakston’s mild.

https://www.byattsbrewery.co.uk/

Thursday and we set off in earnest. Its was a day for wildlife and catching up with friends. We spotted a beautiful Red Kite soaring above us and a snowy white Little Egret by the side of the canal. A baby frog hopped across the towpath as we set off. As we glided past a row of moored boats I spotted a familiar boat and face. The boat was Chyandor, and the face belonged to its crew Lisa, Fred its captain was there too. We hovered in the middle of the canal and had a quick chat with them. Its was nice to see a friendly face. The next friendly faces we saw were Keith and Andrew on steam tug Hasty. Hasty had been at the Braunston historic boat rally and they were taking it back to Swan Lane. Just a quick chat with them as its not so easy to stop a steam driven boat. We also passed Precious Jet, but there was no sign of Steve.

Steam Tug Hasty

https://www.facebook.com/SteamTugHasty/

We were at Braunston for the weekend and it was busy with boats moving. We tried the Boathouse, and I am pleased to say their food menu has improved since the last time we were here, but unfortunately the choice of beer hadn’t, and the Hobgoblin Ruby, which the Captain likes had been replace by Hobgoblin Gold, which he definitely doesn’t.

We decided to tackle the 6 Braunston double locks on Sunday and were lucky enough to meet another boat to share them with. It was a hire boat from Kate Boats, but its Captain and crew were old hands so we worked well together. We seemed to be the only boats going up the locks, but every man and his dog were coming down. I counted 20 boats in total, a mixture of private and hire boats, and one youth project boat called Centenary with 12 very enthusiastic teenagers on board.

https://centenarynarrowboat.weebly.com/

It made doing the locks very enjoyable, and soon we were at the top and heading for the tunnel. The Captain hates Braunston tunnel, as it isn’t straight and has a number of kinks in it, and this is were we normally meet another boat coming the other way, and today was no exception. We met with a bit of a bang but no damage done.

We made it to Norton Junction and turned north on to the Leicester line of the Grand Union. As we moored up a very nice lady called Sue and her dog India stopped for a chat. She and her partner own NB Dover and a butty. Now NB Dover was part of a television series in the early 2000’s (I missed it some how but the Captain didn’t) in which it underwent restoration.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266009/

She wasn’t too complimentary about the standard of the restoration and they are in the process of putting some things right.

After our chat we headed off to the New Inn, one of our favourite pubs on the system.

More locks and another tunnel next day, Watford locks are single staircase locks, and you have to book in with the lock keeper and wait your turn. They weren’t busy so we didn’t have long to wait. Then Crick tunnel, now this tunnel isn’t to bad and very straight, so you can literally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We moored at Crick and walked into the village, there is a very handy Co op here and a couple of pubs. The Wheatsheaf being our favourite.

https://www.wheatsheafcrick.com/

After a couple of quiet days we decided to head down the Welford Arm and the Wharf pub. Last time we were here they had a beer festival on and the Captain was a happy bunny, but not on this occasion, as even though they had 6 hand pulls on not one was a stout, porter or mild, so he had to make do with lager. We were also very surprised to find we had all the visitors mooring to ourselves, well 3 more boats turned up later but all left before us next day.

Friday, a very hot day, we cruised until we found some lovely mooring to sit out the heat. Red Kites and Buzzards were in the sky above us and I spotted a Pheasant on the towpath. I decided to organise our social calender, our friends Col and Mags were booked into to come for Sunday lunch at Foxton Locks, and a curry was organised with Dave and Sandra in Market Harborough the following Tuesday.

The view from the top Foxton Locks 

We arrived at the top of Foxton Locks on Saturday afternoon and took a walk down to Bridge 61 for a pint. The Captain is always happy in here with Langton Brewery Bullseye Stout in bottles.

https://langtonbrewery.co.uk/beers/bullseye-stout/

Col and Mags joined us next day, and after a couple of pints (Bridge 61) we walked back to the boat in the rain. Lunch was a great success, but all to soon we had to say goodbye.

Monday and time to tackle the 10 locks, they are 2 staircases of 5 locks with a passing pound in the middle, you have to open the paddles in a particular order. We got down without a problem, but when the Captain tried to leave the last lock a small boat was moored too close to the entrance, and he couldn’t swing our boat round with out hitting it. I went and helped pull the boat back away from the lock and eventually we were out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxton_Locks

We headed straight down the Market Harborough arm hoping to get moored up and do some much needed shopping, but found that CRT in their wisdom (or stupidity) had closed all the visitors mooring at the basin due to the towpath being resurfaced. We went into the basin but they wanted £17per night, and the Captain wasn’t paying that. Now the real issue was we needed to get into the town, not just for the shopping but to meet Dave and Sandra for our curry. After looking on Google, we found that if we moored at the first bridge after the basin, and were the towpath was closed from, we could get a bus into the town. Great, problem solved.

We moored up and headed off to do the shopping, no problem, but coming back was a different matter as the bus didn’t turn up, and another wasn’t due for an hour. We decided to walk to the Market Square, as we had more than one bus we could get from there, but we still had 45mins to wait. Time for a drink, first bar was closing but pointed us in the direction of the local Wetherspoons, The Sugar Loaf, which was not to far from the next bus stop. Checked their website, great they had a ruby beer on, happy Captain. But no that was no longer available, grumpy Captain. He had to make do with a Singha lager, which luckily is one of his favourites. Well the bus turned up on time and we eventually got back to the boat. It made it a very long day.

Report on the curry in the next instalment.