Autumn Sunshine

Glorious, warm, autumn sunshine accompanies us as we make our way along the Grand Union Canal from Wigrams Turn, up the Baunston Locks, down the Buckby Locks and through to Gayton Junction. With cool mornings and evenings sleeping is no problem and during the first few days of our travels we feel rested and renewed.

Leaving Braunston

We paired up with Roger and Liz (from Twickenham!) and their friends, on nb Mameduke, to ascend the Braunston Locks. So with plenty of crew this was an enjoyable climb. They decided to stop for lunch at Norton Junction but having had a nibbles type of lunch on route we had made the decision to continue down the Buckby flight before stopping for the day.

A shared ownership boat had just finished taking on water and joined us for the decent. On board were the owners, an older grey haired couple, much like us, their two sons with their partners, their 18 month old grandaughter, and two beagles. Quite a boat full! However, it did mean there was plenty of muscle to work our way through the heavy locks on this flight. Jenny took advantage and did as little as possible! It was a jolly, sociable afternoon.

A busy Buckby flight

We now find ourselves, once again sitting in beautiful early evening sunshine, enjoying a gin and tonic at the top of the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union, ready to make our decent of the 17 Locks which will take us down to Northampton and then on to the River Nene (pronounced 'Nen' in these parts).

Cheers!

Narrowboats approaching on the Grand Union

Otter spotted

Travelling along a sunny Oxford Canal today we were alerted to an otter playing on the waters edge amongst the reeds.  The first we have ever seen on the cut. Sadly, he was too quick for a photo! Great to see though.

Autumn 2019

Monday 16th September

Here we go on the autumn leg of our travels.

We have had a glorious spell at home with grandchildren, family and friends keeping us busy as well as a great few days in France visiting our old narrowboat chums, Sara and Pete, who now own a Dutch steel cruiser, which they took over the Channel at the beginning of the season to cruise the French waterways.  Sadly for them,  their season has been cut short due to lack of water on many of the French canals. They made it as far as the Loire region, rather nice! However, we had a great time on board Marina and also getting to know the surrounding area under stunning blue skies and hot sun. We also sampled far too much of the local wine.

Marina moored in Briare

Back on board Hunters Moon, however, we find ourselves with overcast skies and spells of drizzle as we left Fenny Marina on Monday afternoon. The morning had been spent preparing the boat for our trip and  stocking up with provisions before setting off towards Braunston. From there we will head to Gayton Junction and on to the Northampton Arm. We are then hoping to make it as far as Peterborough.

Earth moving for HS2 alongside the Oxford Canal

As our readers know from the past these are our plans but sometimes they do not work out quite as we intended.

ps

I apologise for there being no conclusion to our summer travels on the blog. I am not at all sure why that was but rest assured we did make it back to Fenny safely after passing through Hawkesbury Junction, which appears to be the last post. The tablet on which it is typed is getting rather old and grumpy now so it might be a case of the writer also getting old and grumpy when the machine stopped working efficiently.

Hawkesbury Junction

It is Saturday afternoon at Hawkesbury Junction and we are sitting on Hunters Moon in the rain! May not even make it up to the Greyhound for a beer and the bbq is off!

A good afternoon for reading.

Meandering along

A short first day  took us to a favourite mooring outside Rugeley. We had stopped for lunch and decided to stay put. The Trent and Mersey is really busy now. It seems that there has been a great departure of boats from their marinas and moorings since we were last travelling. As we sat in the sunshine, yes that's right, sunshine, we watched boat after boat pass by in both direction.

These busy boat movements started very early the next day as well. For us it was a brief stop in Rugeley to visit Tesco  then, in the warm sunshine,  on to an offside mooring by the Armitage Shanks factory for a lunch stop.

With these very pleasant cruising conditions we chugged along to Fradley  Junction,  where we were hoping to moor. Above the locks it was chock a block, so through the locks and past the Mucky Duck, turn right onto the Coventry Canal, through the swing bridge we travelled hoping to moor along this stretch. No such luck. There were boats moored, even two breasted up, right up to bridge 91. We have never seen it quite so busy. We ventured on and we're rewarded with a pleasant sunny mooring a short way on and enjoyed our first gin and tonics this year on the back deck in beautiful, warm sunshine.

Fazeley Junction and onward tomorrow.

Return to normal.

Well, we have had a great week back home in glorious warm sunshine when we have had bbqs,  picnics, enjoyed sports days, an outdoor swimming gala, caught up with all the grandchildren and most of the children, got the garden looking reasonable and enjoyed a great, if rather hot wedding. A full on week, so returned to Hunters Moon for a rest and hopefully to enjoy the good weather, at last! Not to be it seems. The forecast is for overcast skies, and rain! We are not having much luck this year with the weather.

Anyway, we had a good journey back to Great Haywood Marina and had arranged to meet up with Dave and Val again for a meal, and a few beers, at the Clifford Arms. We caught them between their caravan trips to Wales, last month and then Norfolk in a few days time. It is great that they enjoy their caravanning as much as we enjoy our boating.

We had an extra night in the marina so Sid could do an engine service and will be off on Tuesday, heading south.

Summer at last!

Saturday 22nd June

Summer is here at last!

The sky is blue and it is warming up as we slip our lines and head for the Stourbridge flight, 16 locks. We start slowly with locks against us but at lock 8 we are met by the smiling face of John, who we came across volunteering at the Dudley Tunnels on Thursday, who had seen us coming and set the next lock and then helped us with the remaining locks. We are always so pleased to get some help and especially this morning as it was getting positively hot. There were lots of cyclists, dog walkers, families and runners enjoying the towpath today brought out by the good weather.

Entering Netherton Tunnel with 'the light at the end of the tunnel'

John helping on the Stourbridge Locks

Glass kiln on the Stourbridge Canal

We finished our day mooring just above Hinksford Lock where, for only the second time this season had a bbq in the beautiful evening sunshine.

On Sunday we are meeting daughter - in - law', Kaye's sister, Vicki and her two girls, Olivia and Georgia who live nearby at Kingswinford.

Sunday 23rd June
Summer didn't last long, cloudy skies have returned with the threat of rain.
Vicki and  the girls joined us near Swindon and we had and little chug up the Staffs and  Worcs Canal through Bumble Hole Lock and the Bratch Locks, where we moored and and went to Vicki ' s house where we spent a lovely family afternoon and bite to eat. A good day!

Monday 24th June
Rain, humidity, the threat of thunderstorms and steady progress along the Staffs and Worcs to Gailey.

Another rainy day!

Tuesday 25th June
Rain, rain and more rain! Still, we did have one day of summer and as we head back to Great Haywood Marina,  again, the temperatures are set to soar towards the end of the week. Great for the wedding we are returning home for and getting out and about to catch up with family. Let's hope it continues for our return and our last leg of this part of our travels as we head back to Fenny.

Beautiful wild flowers

A pot of grease and an oil can - the remedy to tough lock gear??!!