Post Crick: Day 9

A really beautiful sunny and warm day, and our mooring was quiet apart from lots of birdsong.  It really is lovely round here.  We were up fairly early and treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast.  Adrian wanted his work shirts washed, so we started a wash load before setting off, and got under way once the washing part of the cycle had finished.

As well as being sunny, it was also very still, with great reflections in the water.  We were soon approaching Braunston, and the turn always seems to feel quite exciting.

We gambled on their being a space to moor by the marina, and we were in luck.  We walked up to the village to get food for the next few nights; the butcher there always has plenty to choose from.  As we set off again, a few boats came past so we knew we’d probably be queueing at the locks.  I walked up there while Adrian brought the boat.  Sure enough, two boats were going up the bottom lock, with two more waiting below, then us.  Then a boat moored between locks 1 and 2 threw a spanner in the works by turning around and going into the second lock with one of the boats, leaving a Napton hire boat without a partner.  The two boats waiting said they were travelling together and didn’t want to split up, so I suggested to the volunteer lock keepers that if the hire boat didn’t mind waiting for us, we’d join them for the locks above.  So the two boats travelling together came up and continued into the second lock, then we came up along and joined the hire boat.

There were eight people on board the Napton boat, a British couple and her Canadian relatives, and we all got on very well.  There were enough of them working the locks that I was always able to go up to the next one, and as we met plenty of boats coming down we made decent progress.

At the top, we were through the tunnel first, then continued to Norton Junction, hoping for a space just before the bridge, with a nice view.  And we were in luck, finding plenty of space in a prime spot.  This is looking from across at the Leicester Line (and although it looks as though we’ve moored leaving git gaps in between, it’s happened like that because other boats and come and gone!).

We were tied up by 1pm, and in the afternoon decided to walk down to Anchor Cottage for an ice cream.  But the shop turned out to be closed, so we walked down to the chandlery at the bottom lock instead, where they also sell Magnums.  On the way, we passed our Canadian friends going down the locks.

7 miles, 6 locks.  (88 miles, 46 locks)