Our new adventure day 11

[Debs]

Wow! What a day! We started off, this morning, at the top of the Buckby flight. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day! The first part of the day was going through the Braunston Tunnel. It's a very hard Tunnel to navigate is it's very uneven. There are twists and turns all through it. Although, to be fair, we may have straightened it up a bit judging by the amount of brickwork we now have on the boat! 

After the tunnel, there was a short stretch to the next flight of locks. As it was early morning, everyone was in high spirits however, as time went on, people became less chatty! 

We stopped at Braunston for lunch at the pub next to Midland Chandlers. Had a drink then made our way to the chandlers to but some shiny things! Shiny things purchased, we made our way back to the pub for another drink and some lunch. 

After lunch, we made our way to the junction with the South Oxford Canal. I have never seen it so busy! As I said before, the water is quite shallow at the moment and the Canal and River Trust have just let the bushes and trees grow so there is little or no room for two boats to pass. This means that either someone has to get wiped out by branches or get grounded, depending what way you are travelling! Guess who go grounded on a couple of occasions? 

We decided to stop at the first pub we came to, about 5 miles, from the junction of the Grand Union, I believe it was called The Bridge at Napton however, it was closed! I cannot believe that a pub in such a prime location (bridge number 111) should be closed as there is really nothing else for miles! 

Stupidly enough we thought that we would be able to moor up just before the Napton flight! Now, here I have a bit of a moan! Boaters, on the whole, are very friendly, likeable people who help each other through locks etc! When it comes to mooring up for the night, some people can be totally selfish! As we were coming up to the flight, the amount of boats that had about 10ft either side of them was stupid! Nobody seems to want to be right next to another boat! This is all well and good, however, if you have 20 boats moored up with 10 ft either side, that's at least another two boats that could have moored up if everyone was fender to fender! But, hey! We couldn't get moored so we just had to get on with doing the flight! There were two boats ahead of us and the one immediately ahead was a hire boat! It was a really nice couple who had their grandson with them. They are travelling to Cropredy and back. The boat in front of them was a lone boater who decided, after going through a lock, to leave the boat to bob about whilst getting the next lock ready. Unfortunately, she hadn't reckoned on the boat making its own way into the middle of the pound so she had to get onto the hire boat to then get onto her boat! What a total waste of time that was! To top it off, she took the mooringbthatvwe were aiming for so onward we went! Eventually, we went through lock 13 and found a mooring spot and that is where we are now, sitting in the front of the boat watching the world go by!

[Timx]

Front of boat with a beer is a great place to be after a long day, good pics.

[Debs]

It certainly is. Thank you. X