Autumn Cruise: Day 3

It was a lovely sunny morning as we set off before 8.30, round the corner to Buckby Tol Lock.  It needed to be emptied, but we were soon up and passing the junction towards Braunston.  In the tunnel, it at first looked as though there was a boat coming towards us, but I soon realised it was someone with a white navigation light at the stern.  When we got to the top lock they were just going in, and we joined them.  It was a couple on a very nice little Armada hire boat, which was new this year.  Adrian went and had a look on board as we waited for one of the locks, and was impressed.

There were lots of boats coming up, and we ended up swapping with boats at all locks except the bottom one.  At one of the locks I couldn’t get the gate open.  It turned out that a bit of pole had jammed itself across the corner.  Both boats went out of the other gate, and we told the uphill boats what was going on, and suggested one of their skippers tried dislodging it.

All the traffic meant a bit of waiting at each lock, but the couple we were sharing with were lovely, and we all chatted away.  It’s only September, but the shop at the bottom lock is already gearing up for Christmas.

Our lock partners were stopping in Braunston as their son was coming up and they were going to the Admiral Nelson for a meal.  They don’t have to be back until Saturday morning.  We gambled on the water point at the junction being free, which it was; we got a wash load going as the tank filled, and I also popped into Midland Chandler for a bottle of Craftmaster carnuba wax, because we really should give the boat its autumn polish while we’re out.  The next bit of canal is a real favourite.  There’s nothing particularly special about the scenery, but it’s just so typically English, with ridge and furrow fields, rolling countryside, and the view back to Braunston church.

The alpacas were on the bit of grass right by the entrance to Barby Moorings.

At Hillmorton Locks, there was one boat waiting to go in the top lock.  Only one of the pair of locks was operating, and a sign said this was because one of the bottom pair was out of action, so they were trying to regulate the flow of boats.  They went down, a boat came up, and then it was our turn.  We also managed to swap with a boat at one of the middle locks.  But we then found ourselves fifth in the queue for the bottom lock.  I went to get ice creams from the Bistro while we waited.  We ended up being there about 40 minutes; the boat ahead said there had been a long queue at the top when they arrived, so it had taken them about three hours.  CRT were working on the broken lock, which had apparently had its top gate hit by a boat.  It looked as though the collar had broken, and the guys were using huge spanners to put things back together.

The reason everything was taking such a long time was that the working lock also had one top paddle out of action, and the volunteer lock keeper was being very gentle with the working one.  Once down, we carried on to the moorings by Rugby golf course, it being about quarter to four.

14 miles, 10 locks.  (47 miles, 25 locks)