A Lovely Catch Up with Jenni.

 Wednesday 22nd September 2021 near Claydon.

What a special feeling it was to wake up back on MM again. As ever, M was up with the lark and was rewarded with the sight of the setting full moon reflected in the canal.

We'd agreed to meet Jenni, Ed and Will at 10:00am above the next lock. To our surprise, they were already waiting at the lock to help us through.

After we had moored up, we all had coffee and tea on board MM and a big catch up. It was especially lovely to hear Jenni's account of her recent trip to California for the wedding of her daughter Kate.  So good to see them; unexpected meetings are the best!

They set off again on Rufford after about an hour, as they need to get back to Napton tonight or early tomorrow. 

We waited a while as there were quite a few boats heading north towards the Claydon flight of locks and we preferred to let them all go rather than wait in a queue at the locks.

Several things caught our eye as we cruised along. One was a dinky gypsy caravan in beautiful condition.

Another was what looked like a giant daisy 15 inches across, but is actually a massive fungus!

We often see lengthsmen's hut beside locks, usually abandonned and looking a bit sad like this one.

However, next to the middle lock of the Claydon flight was this lengthsman's hut actually being used by two C&RT volunteers, Andy and Dave, who always do Wednesdays. Out of curiosity, M had a peep inside the hut, which contained a kettle, mugs and lots of bottled water, among various items of canal equipment. The fireplace had been removed, but the brass fire tongs were still there. M was warned not to go down into the wine cellar (we hope they were joking?) but she loved the hairy chimney.

Outside was a board recording the passage of boats for the day.

We moored up above the top lock in a lovely rural spot, the peace only slightly disturbed by some heavy machinery in the adjacent field installing field drains. The large machine on the right dug the trench and fed the pipe into it, while the tractor on the right poured gravel into a hopper and down into the trench to cover the pipe. It only took them about an hour to do one strip across the large field.

Another beautiful sunset.

Today: 2 miles, 8 locks and 2.8 hours.

Trip: 454 miles, 248 locks and 229.0 hours