Making steady progress. Day 5 - Stoke Bruene

 We arrived in Stoke Bruene on a beautiful warm, sunny afternoon. The 'gongoozlers' were out in force, it being such a lovely Sunday.  After the canal being very, very quiet all morning it comes as a bit of a shock to the system to be suddenly surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a tourist destination.

We were fortunate to have company in the form of Katy and Brian and their lovely new narrowboat, 'Grumblebee' through the Braunston flight of locks and then again down the Buckby flight. These locks are renowned for being a heavy flight to operate so we were delighted to share them with this jolly couple, which definitely lightened the load.

The past couple of days have still been chilly so it was a treat today to be boating in warm sunshine.

Heading towards Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard over the next few days.

Braunston Bottom Lock

Hunters Moon sharing the lock with Grumblebee

Beautiful new lock gear on the Buckby flight

AND

A brand new gate on Buckby Bottom Lock

Approaching Blisworth Tunnel

The start of our 2025 season

 An early start to our cruising this year. Getting away in April is very unusual for us and as so often is the case after weeks of beautiful spring sunshine and warmth we arrive at Fenny Marina in pouring rain and cold winds. Undetered, after completing a few little jobs around Hunters Moon, stocking up with provisions and plenty of wine we departed the marina under leaden skies and a chilly wind.

We only planned the short trip to the Arial, a tranquil mooring just over an hour away but enough to feel we were on our way. This year we are attempting to complete the Thames Ring. We shall travel north on the Oxford Canal to Braunston, then chug along the Grand Union Canal in a southerly direction down to Brentford. At Brentford we will join the tidal Thames which will take us upstream to Teddington. From Teddington we will continue upstream to Oxford where we come off the Thames on to the Oxford Canal and then travel north to bring us back to Fenny. We have given ourselves about 4 weeks to complete this journey. 

Our first full day started dry but very chilly so we were well wrapped up as we made our way to Marsden Doles Locks and the Napton Flight, passing the ever changing work on HS2. Our descent of the flight was slightly delayed by a rather nice vintage work boat having trouble negotiating bridge 115 just below lock 12. During the winter work was supposed to be done on the bridge, which is  tilting inwards, to enable these big old boats to navigate this stretch of canal in order for them to get down to Banbury for their Canal days. However, it appears the works didn't work. The lock and bridge was surrounded by a lot of men standing around scratching their heads trying to come up with a solution. Eventually it was decided to allow us to proceed through locks 12 and 11 and then they would let water out of that pound, lowering the water enough for the workboat to clear the offending brickwork. They may all still be there if it didn't work, we may never know!

We continued on our way and moored for the night about an hour out of Braunston. Just as we finished mooring the sun burst through the clouds and we are now sitting in glorious sunshine, still a bit chilly so the bbq will have to wait for another day. 

The new HS2 bridge and the old farmers bridge over the canal

we got a hello nod from the crane driver on the HS2 works

Cold Sid!

Our beautiful overnight mooring.