Foxton to Welford Arm Junction ( 7miles, 10 locks and 1 tunnel)

Foxton locks consists of 2 sets of 5 narrow staircases locks to raise and lower boats the 75feet between the lower level Leicester Line and the summit of the Grand Union Canal. (ref.Discovery Trail leaflet.)

A boy and his horse is a sculpture on the summit of the locks - a role a child was often given as the horse pulled the loaded boats along the canal

We moored below the flight and opened the shop for the weekend, but then discovered that we would have been better mooring at the top near the boy and horse sculpture, as we discovered on the Monday!  

Paragliders swirling around the skies above the locks on a lazy Sunday for all to see

My cousin and her husband arrived for a visit, so they got the usual guided tour and cup of tea!  It felt great to catch up, as we don't really see our relatives from the Leicester side often at all.

View up the flight towards the old Top Lock cottage

Passing the boat through the swingbridge early on Monday morning, we struggled to moor the butty against the towpath without anyone on the tiller!  Normally, I would have steered it in as we turned the 90degrees or so for our turn in the locks. But, as I couldn't get back on the butty after closing the bridge, Richard hoped the wind would help.  The butty ended up completely turned around against the big boat, so we had to spin it round again for the short wait to go up.  What a mess!

View back down towards the pubs and giftshop, and of course Richard (and the volunteer lock keepers) hauling the butty up the lock flight

I had by far the easiest job of all, steering (straight line!) the big boat up the flight as each lock chamber was emptied and the gates opened for me to enter, lifting us up another step towards the summit.

The volunteer lockies are friendly, helpful and we are in their debt for a speedy and incident free 'lock up'!

3 volunteer lock keepers were on duty and told us they would do the paddles and the gates whilst I remained on the boat and Richard hauled the butty into each chamber and closed his gate behind.
Only 50 minutes or so later, I reached the top and moored the boat.  As I walked back down the hill, Richard and the butty were only 2 locks from the top.  Pretty good considering they had had to empty all my locks as I was lifted up.

The weather brightened, so as I painted, I had the shop open

With the Bank Holiday approaching, we thought we could tag on the end of the moorings at the Crick Show and perhaps open the shop or have a good look round the showground or both!

Gorgeous scenery on the journey to Crick on the Grand Union Canal

Before we moved off, the following morning, we had got to know a couple on their boat Ali and John, who also write a blog http://nb-triskaideka.blogspot.co.uk/ and are members of the Canal World Discussion Forum as we are.

Husbands Bosworth tunnel - 1170 yards long - boat horses and today's pedestrians walk over the top

Mileposts measure the distance from Leicester, as we made slow progress along this beautiful canal.  The weather was clear but cold, so we decided to moor at the Welford Arm if we could get in.

Signpost at the junction to the Welford Arm - just over a mile in length, but a lovely detour

A few years before, we had visited the terminus on the Welford Arm, and with Crick Show round the corner, we were't going to partake in it's quantness on this occasion!

Mooring up on pins is always a little time consuming, but the towpath looked so green and inviting, and the dogs needed a wee!

A few other boats were already moored up on the rings provided, so we tagged on the end and carried on our jobs around the boats to ready them for the show......