Visiting Jan and Abi.

Thursday 1^st and Friday 2^nd June 2026 near Hillmorton.

On Thursday, we travelled back to MM but by public transport this time. A bus and three trains later we found ourselves at Long Buckby Station which is a tiny local station and has no taxi rank. And it started to rain too!  But while R was looking up numbers for taxis, a bus went past and stopped just round the corner! We checked with the driver, who had kindly waited for us, and found that it went to Daventry. So we quickly hopped on. At Daventry, we had a 45 minute wait for the bus to Braunston. The first 10 minutes of this time were spent sheltering from a huge thunderstorm (with lightning too!) but after that R went for a coffee in Costa while M went to Waitrose for a "few bits". So time well spent, as it meant we arrived back at MM with provisions for several days.

At the marina, we took MM out on to the cut, where we stayed the night on the same nice mooring that we used last Sunday.

 

 On Friday morning, we set off towards the North Oxford canal but soon paused when we spotted nb “Inkling” moored up opposite the pub. Inkling used to belong to our friends Mel and Peter and was bought four years ago by Steve and Caroline. It was a pleasure to meet them and we hovered in order to chat for a while.

 

At Willoughby, just north of Braunston, we stopped, moored up MM and walked into the village to visit our good friends Jan and Abi, We had got to know them at Mary Arden's Farm where they were the Falconers. We hadn't seen them for about five years.  During that time, they have completed the lovely house they have built themselves and which is also entirely "off grid". They have also acquired three gorgeous and (boisterous!) dogs called Willow, Briony and Flossie. 

 

Sadly, Mary Arden's Farm is no longer open, which is a major disappointment as it was the best thing in Stratford because it featured re-enactors in costume actually doing practical tasks of that period instead of the static displays that you get in all the other Shakespeare venues. It seems that real people and real farm animals were too expensive so the bean-counters shut it down. There is an active movement to get it re-opened but it is a hard task - and meanwhile the farm and its period buildings are not being maintained and so are gradually deteriorating.

 We could have spent hours with Jan and Abi but needed to get on our way once more. Setting off again, we passed the famous old signal gantry, a relic of the Great Central Railway, still waiting for the "Master Cutler" express train to Sheffield. It is so nostalgic; a memory of the days of steam travel.

 

 We moored up just before the three Hillmorton Locks, which we will tackle tomorrow morning.

  

 Today: 7 Miles, 0 Locks and 2.7 hours.

Trip: 80 Miles, 64 Locks and 40.9 Hours.