Nether Heyford to the bottom of Braunston flight? "Surely not Ian!" "Don't forget the nights draw in earlier" said I. "And we have 11 miles, one tunnel, the seven locks at Buckby and six at Braunston all to do" I reminded him. His reply? "Fair wind blowing and all locks with us... easily done."
On our way before 9am, but again not in the equation was the amount of moored boats we had to pass. By 11am we had reached bottom lock of the Buckby flight. The lock was empty so this was looking favourable but then a slight delay when a chap walking back to his boat asked us to wait. So I enter the one gate that was open with the plan of moving across to get in behind the closed gate. Saves walking round to open both gates you see. Suddenly FS made a break for the far wall, not what I had planned at all. A deluge of water came pouring over the top gate taking control of the boat and I was powerless to stop FS from hitting the wall hard. Some noises from below....was that my crockery being broken?
The cause was the next lock above being emptied with two boats descending. A quick look below and no harm done. Eventually the single hander joins us, gates are closed, paddles lifted and up we go. Waiting on the lock landing was one of the boats. The second had tied to the bollards by the next lock leaving a gap where he could have pulled forward to. I was first out and realised that the next lock had been filled and was now being emptied with yet another boat descending. Now I had nowhere to go. That lone boater behind, and I'm unable to pull in because of that stupid person tied to the bollards by the second lock. Why he didn't move forward to be with the first boat I will never know. Now we have a situation. another boat exiting the lock and me in the way. I'm afraid I had words with that stupid idiot stopping me from pulling over. "Oh yes I see what you mean," said he. "I'm not helping matters am I"?." No, your blooming not" I shouted. He did pull forward and I managed to pull over enough for the other boat to get past.
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| That's him on the lock landing and that's..... |
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| the other boat coming out of the lock with me in the way. |
With the single hander helping, we sailed up the flight and the only lock that had to be emptied was the top lock. He moored at the junction leaving us to turn left towards Braunston Tunnel.
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| Norton junction with the GU Leicester line to the right and GU mainline left. |
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| A new length of piling just beyond the junction. |
Braunston tunnel and another that I dislike. 'It has character' so I have been told many times but if character means negotiating all the bendy bits it leaves a lot to be desired! Times we have met oncoming boats through this tunnel and always on those 'bendy bits'! Lucky today though as we had the tunnel all to ourselves.
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| This shows the tunnels 'character'!!! |
We may have been lucky with Buckby flight but not so Braunston. They all needed topping up due to leakage so took longer than Ian had anticipated. Even so with the six locks done we were still moored by a little after three, so Ian's plan on reaching Braunston before dark paid off after all.
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| Braunston top lock. We now start our descent. |
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| Busy Braunston |
On the journey,
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| Diesel on the water for at least a mile. No idea where it had come from. |
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| One way of raising the Ariel. |
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| Now that's more like it! Vegetation cut back, lovely. |
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| Ah, it was short lived! Back to overgrowth after bridge 19 |
And seen on route,
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| Doing the splits???? |
"
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