Wending to Wales: Day 34

Another great evening with Catherine and Nigel last night.  It turned out quite a lot had happened since we last saw them on the August bank holiday weekend, so we got all the latest news and a little bit of wine was drunk.  This morning, there was mist hanging in the valley beyond the towpath hedge as the sun came up.

As we didn’t have a very ambitious day planned and it was our final Saturday of the trip, we treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast.  Even so, we were still away before 8.30, on a very pleasant morning.

These are very familiar miles, as we plodded through Nether Heyford and Bugbrooke.  But it was almost an hour and a half before we passed a boat going the other way.  Gayton Junction and Blisworth ticked by.  I spotted a couple of boat names, one of which I have no idea about, the other just made me chuckle.

In the tunnel in which we passed one boat.  At the locks, the top one just needed topping up before we could go down.

The flight took the usual hour and a half, helped by meeting quite a few boats coming up.  At the bottom we thought we might as well top up with water, and we had lunch while the tank filled.  Then we moved along to the moorings just round the corner, taking the first available space.

This afternoon we walked back up to the village to see Kathryn, and also bumped into Steve Furniss from Grand Union Narrowboats at Weedon, who comes down to give his hire boaters lock training.  We all had an ice cream from The Boat.  On the way back we called on Free Spirit, and were provided with tea, biscuits, and plenty of excellent company by Irene and Ian.

We haven’t actually seen them since we made it up to the Great Northern Basin in 2016, so there was plenty to talk about, although of course blogging keeps us all in touch.

11 miles, 7 locks.  (380 miles, 314 locks)