It was pretty misty this morning when we set off at 8am, straight into the bottom lock.
While we were rising, Mike from the trip boat walked by on his daily exercise, and stopped for a chat. Before long, he’d asked for a windlass and was helping set the locks ahead. He seemed to be enjoying himself, not doing locks on his trips into the tunnel.
I liked a planter at the penultimate lock, with a 1910 brick, and suitably old fashioned flowers.
We said thank you and goodbye to Mike at the top, and headed into the tunnel. We passed two boats inside, the second of which was near the water spout I call the horse piss one, meaning I couldn’t steer around it like I normally do. Not long after we were out the other end, the day cheered up considerably, with the sun coming out. We had lunch on the move, and said hello to Steve at Weedon. Just through the bridge, two guys I vaguely recognised. They were Wilf and Ivan from The Traitors; we spoke to them a bit later, and they are walking from London to Liverpool for the suicide prevention charity, Calm. Here is their Just Giving link.
We got to the bottom of Buckby Locks before 3pm, and headed up with no other boats in sight. At about the fourth lock we started meeting boats coming down, so although we had to turn some, we also had others set for us.
At one of the locks, a bee was in the water by the top ground paddle, so I fished him out and took him to the neighbouring little garden where I managed to find a flower to transfer him to. Hopefully he’ll dry out, get some nectar or pollen or whatever he needs, and get going again.
At the top we decided to go round the corner to see if there was a space with a view — and miraculously there was. I think a boat exactly the same length as us must have been here before!
This even my cousin Catherine and family are coming over, bringing fish and chips from their village chippy. And I’ve finally tested negative for Covid!
17 miles, 14 locks. (22 miles, 14 locks)
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