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.