WHAT DAY IS IT ???

 

And that’s what I woke up this morning thinking, I couldn’t remember if it was Thursday or Friday. This is what happens when you drift along at 2mph, the days just merge together. As it turned out it was Saturday, where has this week gone?

We started on Tuesday moored below the first lock of the Long Buckby flight, with 6 more locks to do. As we prepared to set off NB Teal passed us, as did a group of volunteer lockee’s. Great, thought I someone to go down the locks with, and helpers to boot.

I walked to the first lock and made polite conversation with the lockee’s. Teal had a large crew on board, so once both boats were in the lock and its crew were happy to lock both boats down I walked down to set the next lock. This made easy work of the remaining 6 locks.

Our aim was to get to Weedon Bec and to the pub (of course), there are2 pubs, The Heart of England which is right by the canal, and the Wheat Sheaf a short walk away. We tried the Heart first, no darks on but we weren’t surprised, its a Marston’s pub and has an extensive food menu with different offers on every night. We have eaten here before and the food was good but we were not eating out tonight. The Captain had to make do with lager. Then we walked down to the Wheat Sheaf, and although there was a Camden stout on the bar the Captain was still out of luck as they had run out so lager again. The pub is a little scruffy and could do with some tlc but the beer was good. After a quick shop at the Tesco express opposite we headed back to the boat and a quiet evening.

It rained heavily during the night, I love the sound of the rain on the boat, its quite soothing. The rain was meant to clear by mid morning next day but it really didn’t and after only 6 miles the Captain had had enough and we moored up just before Gayton Junction and the Northampton arm of the GU. We have been down this arm in the past and there are 16 narrow locks which take you down to Northampton itself. From here you can drop down onto the River Nene and do what is known as the Mid Levels, a trip we still have to do.

There are boater services at the junction and we stopped to drop some rubbish off, a wide beam was on the water point but it wasn’t until I returned from the bins that I realised it was an old friends boat, Steve Jay. We haven’t seen him for ages so we had a long chat and got caught up on all the gossip.

Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed for the village of Blisworth and the Blisworth Tunnel, its the 3rd longest tunnel on the system at 3075yrds and extremely wet in places. It opened in 1805 after the second attempt to build it, the 1st attempt in 1800 failed and a tramway was built over Blisworth Hill. The goods were unloaded and transported by horse and cart over the hill to boats waiting at the other side to continue their journey to London.

It was very wet, not surprisingly after all the rain we had had, and we followed a hire boat through which meant it took us a little longer than usual.

Our day wasn’t done yet, as just after the tunnel is Stoke Bruerne, considered to be the spiritual home of boater’s, it has a canal museum, 2 pubs and an Indian restaurant.

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

Its most famous resident was Sister Mary Ward, she dedicated her life offering free medical care to the boat people and was awarded on BEM in 1951 and appeared on This is Your Life in 1959.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_Bruerne#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ward_(nurse)

The 2 pubs are the Boat which sits above the first lock, and the Navigation which is just below the lock. But we weren’t stopping to try either so set off down the 7 locks. We had help at the first 2 but then we were on our own, not a problem for a pair of old pros like us. At the last but one lock I got chatting to 2 lovely ladies walking a dog, and with the Captains permission I offered them a ride down the lock, one accepted gladly but the other stayed with the dog.

We decided to moor up not far after the last lock and had another peaceful night.

We had an almost lock free stretch before us. The weather had improved and we cruised the 5miles to Cosgrove next day. The aim was to go to the pub, The Barley Mow. We found lovely moorings opposite the pub and after a late lunch we headed out to sample the beer. To get to the pub we had to use the horse tunnel that takes you under the canal. It was very low and narrow and the Captain had to be careful not to bump his head, I even ducked, even though I had plenty of room. The pub was lovely and had a selection of real ales but unfortunately, as usual, nothing dark to suit the Captain, so for a change he had Guinness zero, which I must admit is very palatable and I had Madri. The food menu looked good to.

The Horse Tunnel

A single lock next day and I thought I would get rid of some rubbish at the boaters services, but what a sight met my eyes, the large industrial bins were overflowing and there was bags of rubbish all over the floor, I decided my rubbish could wait as I didn’t want to add to the mess. The Captain emailed CRT (Canal and River Trust) informing them of the issue, so hopefully they will get it sorted sooner rather than late. They really need to keep on top of these things, but also boaters need to report issues when they occur, its a 2 way street.

We stopped at Wolverton to do some shopping, there is an Asda, Tesco and Lidl all within walking distance of the canal, however it does included a number of steps so maybe not so good for disabled boaters. The moorings in Wolverton are ok but very hemmed in by buildings, so after shopping we decided to find somewhere a bit nicer and of course we ended up at a pub, The Black Horse. We moored right outside the pub and gave it a try. Once again no darks on for the Captain so we had Prahva instead, it was lovely sat outside in the sun watching the world go by.

During the last couple of days of the cruise we had people running past the boat at all hours of the day and night, it turned out these brave (or stupid) people were taking part in an ultra race, which meant they had 100hrs to run 250miles, which was a circular route taking in the Thames, Grand Union canal and the Oxford canal. Absolutely mad in my opinion but each to their own. Out of the 39 runners who started 9 actually finished including 1 woman. The overall winner was Colin Crowhurst who completed it in 74 ½ hours, and then went on to run the London Marathon 2 days later in 4hrs 13min. MAD, that’s all I am saying

The Route

https://challenge-running.com/thames-ring-250/

Thats all Folks, for now.

27miles, 13locks, 1tunnel 3057yrds long.

THE FIRST LOCK OF THE YEAR

Happy Times

The blog is back.

Yes we have set off for our summer cruise, but first I will update you on the winter months.

Most of you will know I don’t write a blog in the winter as we don’t move, so there is not a lot I can talk about, apart from work, what’s going on around the wharf, visitors and our visits to family. None of which are really cruising related.

I will say, work has been a joy this year, and I was very sorry to leave, which I did at the end of March, a little early this year as we took a trip to Budapest, the capital of Hungary for 4 nights. It is an amazing city, with beautiful architecture, stunning parks and amazing memorials. We found great food, and of course beer whilst we were there. We also took a busman's holiday by doing a night time cruise down the Danube, really the only way to see the city at night, with many of the landmarks lit up and looking stunning from the boat.

The Parliament Building

On our return we took a couple of shake down cruises, firstly with my cousins Gary and Toni down to Hawkesbury Junction, were after a couple of pints in the Greyhound we had a lovely (if I say so myself) Sunday lunch on the boat. Then a trip down to Coventry basin with the Captains daughter and grand-kid's and lunch in Playwrights also in the basin, which I would highly recommend.

https://www.facebook.com/PlaywrightsCafe/

Now onto our plans for this years cruise which is going to be split in half, as we will be returning to our home mooring in Coventry at end of June to head off for a big ship, and a cruise round the Adriatic and Mediterranean. We did the Caribbean last year for the Captains birthday and decided since we enjoyed the experience so much we would do another.

So the first half of our cruise is to London, were we will stay for about a week and hopefully take in a west end show. On our return from the Med we are heading north, probably Lincoln and Boston before our annual cruise up the Erewash in time for family birthdays. We have to be back at Swan Lane wharf by the end of September for our dear friends Col and Mags wedding, where the Captain is the best man.

Our cruise to London will take us down the Coventry to Hawkesbury Junction before we go through the stop lock (hence the title of this episode) and onto the North Oxford, through Rugby, the 3 locks at Hillmorton and Braunston where we will turn onto the main line of the Grand Union canal to London.

As I have already said, we have already set off, our first, night was spent in Coventry basin and we met up for a pint or 6 with Col and Mags, it was a great night and we ended up in the Windmill, a great pub for real ale in Coventry.

Col and |Mags

Next day we travelled down to Hawkesbury and through the stop lock. As we put in water I walked round to the lock, and with the help of a very nice volunteer lock keeper set it for us, but we were pipped at the post as NB Cariad got there first, its Captain was most apologetic for stealing our lock, but it wasn’t a problem, we met him again when we moored at Rugby and he reiterated that he hadn’t meant to nick it, but I assured him again it wasn’t a problem. We moored for the night just past the lock and for the second night went for farewell drinks, this time with Keith and Andrew.

Next day and our journey began in earnest. But it wasn’t long before disaster struck. I decided after my morning walk I would bake some breakfast muffins. I put them in the oven only to find out the gas bottle was empty, I wasn’t bothered by this as it was due to run out. The Captain pulled over and swapped onto what we thought was a full bottle and I tried again. Still no gas. Bugger. We soon worked out that he had forgotten to swap the empty bottle with the full bottle which was in the coal store back at the wharf. So no muffins for us or really any tea, as I was planning to cook chicken fajitas. I knew I could use my air fryer and we could get by but it put my plans for meals in disarray. We made it to Rugby by late afternoon and luckily we knew there was a pub there, the Bell and Barge, which turned out to be a Harvester so we went out for tea.

Unfortunately with it being a bank holiday weekend we didn’t know if any of the boatyards on our route would be open, the first one we tried, Clifton Cruisers wasn’t, and the second, Braunston Marina didn’t answer the phone which didn’t bode well.

Next day as I walked to Hillmorton locks I decided to give the second boatyard another ring, and luckily this time very very nice lady answered, and I was pleased to find out they were open until 4 and also 10 til 4 the next day, and yes they had gas. Yippee.

I reported back to the Captain and he decided that we could last until the next day, which meant we could moor just before Braunston rather than trying to find moorings in this very popular spot.

But before this we had Hillmorton locks to do. These are 3 single side by side locks and claim to be the busiest on the system.

https://www.hillmortonlocks.co.uk/

And it did seem they were busy as we approached the bottom lock. I jumped off early with my trusty windlass and walkie talkie to go and see what was occurring. There was a boat in one coming down and a boat in front of us waiting to go into the other lock. Me being my helpful self I went to see what I could do. However as I started to help the boat coming down I was told very sharply not to as they were showing their friend how to do the locks, the boat coming up was the same but not quite so rude about it. So I stood back and let them get on with it. It didn’t take us to long to do the 3 locks and we were on our way to Braunston, it was a lovely afternoon for cruising and we spotted a Red Kite being harassed by a couple of crows.

We picked up a bottle of gas next day, the price nearly gave the Captain a heart attack £60!! but need must and maybe next time we will remember to check them before we set off.

https://braunstonmarina.co.uk/

And onto the 6 Braunston locks, these are double locks and we were lucky enough to share them with a hire boat with crew on board. It worked well as it meant I could go ahead and set the next lock, whilst their crew looked after the one the boats were in. It mizzled (fine rain) the whole time so we got a bit wet, but not too bad.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers/places-to-visit/braunston

After the 6 locks is Brauston tunnel, 2042yrds long and 2 way working, it was the second tunnel of the cruise, the first being Newbold tunnel which is actually more like a long bridge at only 250yrds. The Captain hates meeting other boats in tunnels because its always in the worst place but on this occasion it was fine and we glided past without any problems.

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

We moored up for the night after the first lock on the Buckby flight and headed to the pub, the New Inn which unfortunately was closed, should have remembered this pub does close on a Monday.

33 miles, 11 locks, 2292yrds in 2 tunnels