On to Braunston

As I mentioned yesterday there were heaps of wasps around the boat when we stopped for the day, but we were too buggered to move any further! This morning there were hundreds of the little buggers flying around ...


Elaine made up a sage smudge stick to kill repel them, whilst I quickly untied the boat!

Talking of Elaine, she felt a lot better this morning.  I asked how I went looking after her whilst she lay crook in bed last night ... not too bad was the reply apart from you forgot to feed me!  I made up for it this morning by making her breakfast in bed!

The farmer had made a very nice job of this field ... the soil looked like velvet ...

Name and shame time ... this nob moored fair and square right in the middle of the water point.  He was a proud member of the IWA  and various other water type organisations ...

....to me he was an ignorant wanker!

Weather-wise  it started off rather chilly but by midday it was quite warm ...

We then reached the top of the Napton flight.  Elaine was helping a family with his final lock (the top lock) but they were struggling to get the boat out of the lock as they kept reversing it into the gates!  I walked up to see what the problem was ... the chap said the boat would only go in reverse no matter what he did with the controls.  You have probably broken the shift cable, says I.  I had a quick look for him and sure enough it had snapped.  I  put the gearbox in forward and told the chap he could now move forward but warned him that if he put the shift lever in reverse again it would stay there, so I told him to leave it in forward and shut the motor down before he moored up.  It was not the best solution but at least he would be able to do a few miles towards his base at Croperdy.  So soon as he left the lock he put in reverse and ended up in the weir...doh!

Good deed done we went off down the Napton flight very slowly.  There are so many boats on the move, easily the most we have seen moving this year.

The Napton windmill looked very nice against a very threatening sky.

This horse and its mate just stood next to its foal ...

We just hoped the foal was having a nap ...

I really hope that it is OK - it did move its head when we clapped our hands!

Nob No 2 moored right on the 'no mooring' winding hole sign ...

Once again it was a long day ... nearly eight hours and over fourteen miles.  Just by chance we were coming into Braunston, we picked up a good mooring dead opposite the Boat ...

Just perfect, off to the Boat we went for a couple of beers and dinner.

The epic trip continues tomorrow!!

Sleepy Strawberries!

Well, it was windy and wet today with the occasional bit of sunshine, but 'no worries' as we didn't intend moving anyway.

We took a walk up to the village fete ... where they announced that the "next two dogs to get to the hot dog stand would get a sausage each" --- we were there in a flash and Bombo and
Sam amused the crowd with their sausage eating prowess !

... and then Elaine bought me a necklace to go with my bracelet that she made me!!

It was a very small very English village fete - not too much going on but very quaint ...


Afterwards we went back to the boat and scoffed some very yummy fresh strawberries and cream, purchased at the aforementioned village fete, ... we said later that they must have been drugged because we both fell asleep for two hours after eating them!

Upon waking from our strawberry-induced-comas we took a walk up to the Admiral Nelson pub (with the dogs) ... which was considerably busier than the last time we were there last year (when there was only 3 of us and the barmaid there).  After I had ordered our drinks one of the (very attractive) barmaids asked me, "have you been seen to?"  I did say I had ('been seen to') but Frankie Howard did pop into my head momentarily with a "ooh err missus ..."!!!

After our trip to the pub we went back to the boat for a yummy dinner and watched a crap film on the tele ... !

Tomorrow we will continue our journey !

It's Friday, Hello Braunston

As we decided to spend the weekend in Braunston, we decided that we really must get up early so that we could get a good mooring.

Some 'nob' woke us up cruising past before 6.00am!  We didn't want to get up that bloody early!
We were off before 9.30am, which is very early for us.

There were loads of boats on the move, it is so much busier than the canals up north 'tha' knows'.

Solitary cow crossing a bridge ...


We got a really good mooring opposite the pub, perfick ...

We took the boys for a walk up to the chandlery to get some more u-beaut polish, then up to the Braunston butchers for snags and pork pies (for me ... and the dogs!  El makes me share them!)

Back on board the goodship Elaine sat in the cratch, where she worked on her new website and blog and emailed her old clients back in Oz, who had responded to a new newsletter ... keeping herself busy!!

I touched up the paintwork and did a bit more varnishing.

Then it was time to do the blog and have a beer.  We will pop over to the pub soon ... well it's Friday night and it would be rude not too. (Plus it is a 2 for 1 pub ... we like those - no cooking tonight!).

Have a good weekend everyone xx