A Visit from Charles and the Girls.

Sunday 30th June 2019 at Foxton Locks.
The day dawned bright and fair and, thankfully, a bit cooler than yesterday.

We walked up to the café beside the top lock for breakfast, past the lovely lock keeper's cottage by the bottom lock. M would definitely love it!

We were the first customers of the day at the café. What a panoramic spot to have breakfast.

Charles, Penny and Minnie arrived about midday. There is so much of interest to see here so we took them on a quick tour - first we took them to see the Inclined Plane, where we toiled to the top.

And then surveyed the scene below from the lookout point.

Our walk took us along the short arm that used to lead to the top of the Inclined Plane. Then across the bridge on to the towpath side, where there is a very evocative sculpture of a working horse and the boy driving him. Minnie quite liked the little boy.

Finally, we arrived at the top lock where a kind lady took a family photograph - including M for once!

Clearly the walk was getting too long for Minnie, who declared that she was hungry and it was time to go for lunch and tried to drag Charles off.

Eventually, we arrived at the Foxton Locks Inn at the bottom of the locks for lunch and both girls  expressed their enthusiasm at the thought of food, followed by ice-cream.

Charles and the girls were keen to do a short cruise up the arm towards Market Harborough, so the first task was to open the pedestrian swing bridge.

Penny tried her hand at steering and did very well considering she still can't see the front of the boat from the tiller.

 

Minnie had a go at steering with the help of Charles, who took over and steered MM most of the way, including winding her very competently given that the wind was definitely against him as he tried to turn.

Back at Foxton, we had a farewell ice-cream before they left to drive home.

We took MM back along the Market Harborough arm for a short distance to where we had seen a lovely quiet spot for an overnight mooring when we passed with Charles and the girls. Having moored up, the first task for R was to water the geraniums.

Today: 4 miles, 0 locks and 2.3 hours.
Trip: 128 miles, 52 locks and 69.3 hours.

Scott and Family Help Us Down Foxton Locks.

Saturday 29th June 2019 at Foxton Locks.
A misty start to the morning, with no indication of the sweltering day which was to follow.

A little later, in clear blue skies, we cruised the three miles to the top of Foxton Locks and took our place in the queue of boats waiting to go down.

R walked ahead to register with the lock keeper - boats are taken through the locks in the order in which they register, not the order in which they arrive - so it is important to find the lock keeper as soon as you arrive.

We were about number seven on the list and, when the lock keeper opened up at 10:00am, the volunteers took five boats down, which left us as number two. Because Foxton is a staircase of ten locks, you can't pass in the middle, so they take a batch down and then a batch up.

So, despite having arrived at 9:30, we didn't start down until 1:00pm. Looking on the bright side, it gave M time to have a sausage bap in the café and for R to have a Magnum! It was still fairly quiet at the flight; the flocks of "gongoozlers" hadn't yet started to arrive.

Just before we started down, we were very pleased to see Scott, Paula and Lachlan coming up the hill to meet us.

Unfortunately, Amelia, their daughter, wasn't feeling well, so had stayed at home. Scott and Paula stayed on MM with R as we started to descend through the locks. Although Scott and Paula have been on board before, this was the first time that they had gone down through locks whilst on board.

M was very amused when the rather over-enthusiastic C&RT lady volunteer insisted on showing M the step by step process of going through a lock, as if describing it to a novice. M thought it better not to tell her that she had done more than 3,000 locks and just nodded and smiled! Lachlan joined M on lock wheeling duties and took to it like a duck to water.

By the bottom lock, just an hour later, Lachlan had worked up quite a sweat in the 33deg heat, so he really deserved his reward, which was a very large burger in the Foxton Locks Inn, where we all had lunch. Great chips!

Directly alongside the Inn is a 24 hour mooring space and we were lucky enough to get MM in there. Any slight reservations about the mooring possibly being a bit noisy in the evening proved to be unfounded. Although the Inn was busy with people enjoying themselves well into the evening, they were very quiet.
We decided to reward ourselves for the efforts of the day with a pair of rhubarb gin and tonics (doubles, no less!), which we sat and sipped on MM's stern. Very relaxing!

A very dramatic and potentially stormy sky led to a few spots of rain, but it was still a lovely evening.

We walked across the bridge to photograph MM in the evening light.  A super day.

Today: 3 miles, 10 locks and 2.0 hours.
Trip: 124 miles, 52 locks and 67.0 hours.

Back to MM Again.

Friday 28th June 2019 at Laughton Hills.
The route back on the train, using the ThamesLink service, worked like a dream. We caught the train from Earlswood at 9:43 and were back in Market Harborough by 12:10. The bus only runs every two hours so that gave us a full two hours for M to shop in the town while R had a coffee, before we caught the bus back to the marina.
What with the usual laundry that M took home to wash, combined with the "few bits" that she had acquired in Waitrose and Sainsbury's, we were quite heavily laden for the bus journey, much to the amusement of the driver! Luckily, the bus stop is twenty feet from the marina entrance so we did not have too far to carry everything.
R brought MM into the marina service bay for a pump out and then we were heading for the exit.

It was lovely cruising in the afternoon sunshine, we barely saw another boat.

It must be the mating season for damselflies, they are all flying around in pairs. R wondered, when they do that, who is driving? M is pleased with the geraniums this year; they seem to have recovered a bit since she dead-headed them before we went home. You can see a pair of damselflies on them.

Husbands Bosworth tunnel is 1,166 yards long. M remembered from our last visits that the walk over the top was lovely and so hopped off at the portal.

Clearly, not many people take this route!

The old horse path climbs quite steeply but was as lovely as M remembered.

At one point it crosses the track of a former railway. Sadly, yet another casualty of the Beeching era. Just imagine the lovely sight of a little steam engine chuffing under the bridge.

M, dawdling along looking at the countryside and taking photos, quite expected to see R waiting for her at the tunnel exit, but no - MM was only just emerging as she arrived. R said that MM did the whole tunnel just on tickover!

Our evening mooring was beautiful and very quiet - even if the side of the canal was so shallow that we couldn't get MM's stern any closer to the bank.

A lovely evening view from our bed as we retired. (That's a stick-on dragonfly, by the way!)

Today: 4 miles, 0 locks and 1.9 hours.
Trip: 121 miles, 42 locks and 65.0 hours.

Into a Brand New Marina.

Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th June 2019 at North Kilworth.
"Hadar" is a beautiful traditional working boat on her way to the Historic Boats Rally at Braunston. We were surprised to hear from her crew that she is not permitted to moor as part of the rally because she is not an "original", so she must moor outside Braunston. A shame because she really looks the part, as do her crew.

Before we set off, we went for a cuppa with the nice ladies at Totty Teas next to the wharf.

Inside they have tables and chairs, but also a comfortable sofa that feels just like you are visiting their living room. Delightful!

The weather improved as we made our way back to the main canal and continued up towards North Kilworth. We moored up just a few hundred yards from the marina.

We walked up to the marina to introduce ourselves and to reconnoitre for tommorow when we will bring MM in there for a week while we go home.

This very stylish marina only opened this spring and the facilities buildings, though impressive, are still unfinished.

The following morning the view from the stern was a classic picture postcard scene.

We set off early as we wanted to catch the bus into Market Harborough, and it only runs every two hours - so we didn't want to miss it! The entrance to the marina is very impressive with their initials and the date in the bridge front.

The facilities building already has four wet engineering bays and the plan is to construct another building with four land bays, so the engineering facilities are impressive.

As the marina only opened recently, there is plenty of space still. Most of the pontoons are double length, so that they can each hold two narrowboats. R was given his pick of which space to back into.

We were soon moored up and ready to walk to the bus stop, which is right outside the marina gate.

It couldn't be more convenient. R had found an very good way way home on the train with only a single change in Bedford to take us all the way from Market Harborough to Redhill in just two and a half hours.
We are planning to be back on the 28th to continue our travels, so watch this space.
Two Days: 2 miles, 1 lock and 2.6 hours.
Trip: 117 miles, 42 locks and 63.1 hours. -

An Idyllic Waterway.

Tuesday 18th June 2019 in Welford.
Another lovely morning on this idyllic waterway.

Our goal today is to return to the village of Welford, where R moored last Thursday and Friday.
The surrounding landscape was as beautiful as yesterday. As there are no villages near the canal, very few people walk or cycle this towpath so it is a smooth and grassy path, which is a delight to walk on. M took advantage of this and walked for much of the way.

June is the month for wild roses and they were growing in abundance all along both sides of the canal.

Some of the fields beside the canal are absolutely huge; it took us 15 minutes to sail the length of some of them and they disappeared into the distance over the small hills.
On the towpath side, the hedge was high and thick; in fact, in the twelve miles between Crick and Welford, we only saw one break in the hedge (other than bridges) for this footpath gate.

M really wanted to include this photograph - not because of the gate but because of the massive field of ripening peas behind it. "Heaven", she said!
A lovely vista, which is typical of our memories of this waterway (the photograph of the bridge below, not the peas).

We watched the lucky occupant of this glider from the local gliding club as he was towed up into the sky.

As we approached the entrance to the Welford Arm, we were passed by a pair of working boats on their way to the Braunston Historic Boats Rally.

The arm up to Welford Wharf is just over a mile long. It was originally built as a feeder for the Grand Union Canal to bring water down from two large local reservoirs. It has one shallow lock that is very pretty and very well maintained. It included a notice asking boaters to water the flowerbed as they waited for the lock - a request that has been a bit unnecessary in the last few very wet days!

The moorings at the end of the arm are normally very popular, so we were quite surprised to find that there was nobody moored on the visitors' moorings. So, we filled up with water and then moored up just past the winding hole.

The Stratford Avon rises just east of Welford and the pedestrian and road bridge over it forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.

Signs on either side of the road bridge welcome you one way or the other.

We walked into the town to the very small post office and general store. In most shops, the top shelf of the magazine rack is populated by publications featuring young ladies illustrating a severe clothing shortage; but this is farming country and their top shelf was devoted to...Tractors! Hooray!!!

The Wharf used to be a hive of activity and the ruins of a range of seven lime kilns have recently been excavated. Coal and limestone were brought in by narrowboat and the quicklime and slaked lime taken out. An excellent series of boards explain the history of the Wharf.

We stopped off at the little "Totty Tea Room" at the Wharf for the mandatory tea and cake on the way back to MM. M had her usual "pot of tea for one" in this cheery colourful teapot.

Today: 6 miles, 1 lock and 3.7 hours.
Trip: 115 miles, 41 locks and 60.5 hours.