Back To Where It All Started

Yesterday we left Banbury Lane Bridges in very pleasant conditions.

C&RT artist at work!


This was a rare sight, a widebeam on the move!  Although he had just moored, in my opinion, they are they such a useless boat on a canal - it is hard enough squeezing past them in a narrow boat, let alone two widebeams meeting head on, that would be fun to watch.  If you want to live on a marina and don't go anywhere then they are a great choice though!

We reversed onto the service point at Gayton Junction - we didn't see the other boat waiting to go onto the service point but no worries he just tied alongside us ... plus there are two taps.

Is this the world's slowest ambulance?

These were quite groovy fender brackets ...

This was another rare sight...a very friendly fisherman, we should have framed him!
He smiled and laughed and talked ... amazing!

Uh-oh burial at sea ...

Passed The Mikron Theatre boat in Blisworth ...

... and into the very long 3057 yard Blisworth tunnel.  This chap had a mega bright tunnel light, the boat behind him had none!

We moored up yesterday afternoon at Stoke Bruene and took a walk down to the CBD!  While down there we noticed the crew of a Wyvern hire boat, who we had shared a few locks with previously, sitting outside the Boat Inn.  So, we got chatting and ended up sitting with them for a few beers 'til it got to cold to sit there any longer, so we went back to the boat for a warm up and an afternoon kip (well, I did anyway!)

 At night we went to Spice of Bruene Indian restaurant ... our Wyvern friends were there also so we arranged to meet at the Boat inn after for a few more bevies.

Camera playing up with this shot ... or was it a ghost?!!

We had a very good night with Richard and his lovely wife Yulia.  Richard's parents came back to the pub for a coffee before heading back to their boat.  After a few beers we went back to our boat for more beer and wine before calling it a night.  We arranged to rendezvous at 10.00am  and go down the seven Stoke Bruene locks together.


So here we are this morning leaving Stoke Bruene on a HOT sunny day!  What a shock it was this morning to come out of the boat and feel HEAT!

Elaine and Richard's dad getting into it on the first lock of the day.  The Indian restaurant is behind them, also the second house on the left is the one we rented back in 2009 ...

Too early for the bus loads of sightseers to arrive ...

Richard following us out of the first lock ...

In the third lock ...



The picture below is that of a cranky old bat...

Yulia had gone ahead to prepare the lock for us to enter, when this cranky old biddy came along like a screaming banshee and proceeded to empty the near full lock as she reckoned it was hers.  She went off 'like a belt fed mortar' ... so much so that a school teacher who was with her young pupils had to reassure her children plus tell Yulia not to get upset at her outburst!  We could hear her shouting from the previous lock!  I came out of the lock and was stuck mid pound waiting, so couldn't do anything.  When Elaine reached the lock she told the women's husband that she was so rude and aggressive and that normally she would help but that she could do the lock on her own.  His reply was, unexpectedly, "tell me about, it I have been married to her for forty five years!"   Poor Bastard!  When she came past me I told her that she was a selfish miserable old git and that she had wasted all that water, she gave me the old 'I have been doing this for years crap'.  What a sad old bugger she is.

Here she is marching off to steal the next lock ... school children and teacher behind her.

After that lock debacle but met some other lovely boaters on the way up ... so all was good with the world again !  Here is Elaine chatting up the lockie on the last lock of the day ... (he was telling her how when he was young he used to swim in the canals!)

At the bottom of the locks we both stopped to top up with water and have our farewell chat ...



Really lovely people ... hope to see you again soon guys !


We continued our journey past some good old, smelly, rape fields ...

Dog on a hot tin roof ...

And here we are back at Yardley Gobion, where we started our adventure back in March 2012 ...

Tonight we will head up to our old local (The Coffee Pot) for a couple.

We also spent 45 mins on the phone today to our friend back in Sydney who went to have a look at a property for us...we have now made an offer, so we will sit back and wait :)