Hillmorton Locks.

Wednesday 7th October, 2015 at Willoughby.
The morning was cold, windy and overcast, so we were in no hurry to leave.
There are three locks ahead of us today at Hillmorton and it was not long before we approached them.

These locks are unusual in that they are duplicated narrow locks - pairs of narrow locks side by side.

Approaching the second pair of locks, there was a narrowboat waiting for the right hand lock so we took the left hand lock.

It transpired that the couple on the other boat were completely brand new to boating and had never done any locks before; they were very confused! They had opened one paddle on the tail gate and one on the head gate and were slowly draining the pound above. Oh dear!!  M quickly and expertly (says R) put them right, exlained how locks worked and helped them through this lock and the next one. 
Then - would you believe it - as we left the top lock, we met two very nervous girls on a hire boat - about to do their first ever lock as well! Luckily there was another boat behind the girls and we asked them to help the girls down the flight.
We love the accommodation farm bridges on this canal. No cars, just bullocks (what? says M?!) wandering from one side of the canal to the other, oblivious to us passing underneath.

Mind you one bullock seemed quite inquisitive and watched us carefully as we approached the bridge.

The clouds began to clear creating a lovely light effect on the water.

We moored up by bridge 85 next to the village of Willoughby.

M's birthday present to R is a special falconry day with Jan, the falconer from Mary Arden's farm. It was to have been today but it has been postponed to Friday because of the bad weather. Jan lives in Willoughby so we moored here because there was a possibility of getting together tonight and to do some reconnaissance.

Unfortunately, it now seems that we can't meet tonight after all - so we will go down to Braunston tomorrow and come back here for Friday.
Today: 8 miles, 3 locks and 4.9 hours.
Trip: 435 miles, 320 locks and 326.6 hours.