Feeling at Home

We're back on familiar ground waters, back on the Grand Union Canal, and back to wide locks. It was back in the first week of January when we worked the Hatton flight that we last did wide locks. It always feels slow and hard work in comparison to the narrow locks.

lambs in jackets at Braunston

It was such a beautiful morning, waking up to bright sunlight creeping through the curtains, so we crept off from our peaceful mooring and stopped in Braunston for a quick walk up into the village, remembering our stay here last winter during the snow and iced up canal.

The Admiral Nelson back in business at the Braunston locks

Then we set to with those heavy lock gates and stiff paddle gear, following a pair of boats up the Braunston flight. Once at the top there was a bit of that cold white stuff falling, but still plenty of blue sky, and anyway we were soon into the tunnel.

a noisy rookery

Ahead of us was the Buckby flight, and we were enjoying being out and not being cold, we carried on, pairing up with another boat on the way down.  We were tempted to stop at Weedon, where there are good take-aways - fish & chips and Chinese, also fantastic quilting shop and workshop, but we had plenty of food on board which needed eating and Ian doesn't need any more material, cotton or wool!  

The New Inn at Buckby top lock all shuttered up.

This stretch of canal is between the M1 and railway, so there is the constant hum of motorway traffic accompanied by the rush of high speed trains.
We fancied another peaceful, quiet mooring for the night so carried on, stopping at Stowe Hill for diesel just before they closed.  By then it was snowing a bit more and we began to feel cold, so we moored up just around the corner where we can't hear the road or the railway, lovely.

Willoughby - Stowe Hill
8.5 miles, 13 locks, 1 tunnel