Foxton to Braunston 28 miles and 13 locks

Thank you to everyone who came to see us at Easter and last weekend as well, but now we have to move on to our next destination....

6.30am, we set off as quietly as we could with a 2 cylinder Gardner!

Husbands Bosworth tunnel entrance

Yelvertoft Wharf low road bridge.  I always take off my chimney for this bridge!

Yelvertoft Marina

Crack's Hill - we know we are nearly at Crick when we begin circumnavigating this landmark

M1 motorway on the approach to Watford locks

I take the motor into the first lock and leave the butty behind for Richard to deal with

The butty waits patiently for it's turn on the lock flight

Watford flight consists of 7 locks dropping 52 1/2 feet, all within the sound of the M1, so not as salubrious as you would imagine! 

Leaky lock gates, making me thankful our boats aren't longer than 60feet, else we would be getting a drenching!

View back up to the 'staircase' where Richard is bow hauling the butty

After a long day, we moored around the corner at Norton Junction, so that we could tackle Braunston tunnel and the flight of locks beyond, the next day.

The approach to Braunston locks

Approaching Braunston tunnel, we were flagged in by a Canal and River Trust, informing us of a 'widebeam's' oncoming  passage through the tunnel. It was a few minutes later, when we could see the bow of a hire boat widebeam emerging out of the darkness.  Thankfully, widebeams have to book passage through tunnels only wide enough to take 2 narrowbeam boats, so no embarrassment and lots of reversing happens!

Braunston tunnel (2042yards long) was busy!  For earlyish morning, we passed 4 boats in the tunnel!

I open the gates whilst Richard brings the boats into the double lock

This flight is always quite enjoyable for us, as the gates and paddles all seem quite user friendly.(unlike the Buckby flight on the Grand Union down from Norton Junction) Also, they are double, which means we can strap the boats together (breast them up) which makes the locks quicker to negotiate.

The boat comes down the side of the motor and once in the lock, Richard can strap them together.

Bottom lock (with the shop in the background) of 6 locks dropping 35 1/2 feet to Braunston

We moored again for the night, doing a whirlwind of a tour around the chandleries and shops in the village to get everything on our list.  Walking past the butchers, I saw Tim and Pru of the 'Great Canal Journeys' series and a said a 'Hello' without gushing!  I was quite proud of myself for not going stupid as being brought up in Skegness, fame was totally another world to me!

Leaving sleepy Braunston behind

And after a peaceful night's sleep ( and a beautiful kebab and chips meal from the chippy!) we set off for Rugby....