Thursday 23rd September 2010
Weather – Cloudy and Overcast but quite mild – Day 12
Again sorted so that 11 miles for the guys to Braunston for our stop tonight. One of the so called honeypot sites on the canal with lost for history. Much of that comes tomorrow with lots of locks and the tunnel which is 2042 yard long.
Today though a gentle start at 10.30 am ( the guys got under way at 9.30) which gave me a chance to have a sort out on little jobs on the boat. I had started with a good walk early this morning down towards Rugby town and back and was ready for my usual porridge!
This stretch of canal takes us around the northern part of Rugby and one of the most noticeable things is the work done locally on the bridges – all have some form of murals on them on both the towpath and canal sides – all in good condition and very little vandalism too. Most look to have been designed by schools and colleges and had a historical theme – either canal or the town itself. Needless to say some depict the invention of the game of Rugby – its possible to see the impressive red brick buildings of the school across the town from the canal.
The canal wends its way southwards and is broken up by the only three locks on today’s journey at Hillmorton – another village that is skirted by the canal which has a real country feel about it. A nice award winning bistro faces the pound between the bottom two locks. I had an interesting half hour through here as I was sharing a passage with a boat sponsored by the “Lions” and had members of a youth club on board on their first trip. Its quite a good feeling trying to explain how it all works to sullen youths, who by the time they had done a few become receptive and willing!
Another new marina is being built alongside the canal at Barby near where the M45 cross over. Good ting if it means all the boats moored up along that straight disappear as its really slow down there on a boat – that is if respect is shown in terms of speed. Having a NABO sign on the roof means I cant contemplate nudging up the throttle a bit – not a good example really!
Arrived in Braunston some 2 hours after the kayakers and stopped at the first BW site to take on water and rid myself of certain waste collected during mealtimes! If you said to someone find the most difficult place to put in facilities for a boat to moor then BW have done that here – on a blind bend and the mooring is curved making it impossible to get one or the other ends of the boat alongside!
Just after as I trickled along all the moored boats here I heard a shout from the Milhouse Hotel Garden which is canal side and my kayakers were sat there having a debrief – nowhere for me to get it in to moor so I was excluded!
Eventually I arrived at the spot Chris had shown me which is where the London Narrowboat project has permanent moorings – we breasted up (which means we are tied together rather than Elysium being bank side.
I also passed Pisces which will be the guys home for the rest of the trip and the team had just arrived – switchover tomorrow at 9! Smells like Jane is doing a pasta tonight so blog over!
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