Northampton

Mike set off by car at eight o'clock to drive over to Lower Heyford and meet up with Andrew. Despite going by a less than efficient route (asleep at the wheel at the M40 intersection!) he arrived exactly on the predicted 47 minutes. There was just enough time to have a cup of coffee at Kizzies, catch up with local news before Andrew drew into the car park.

Well before ten they were back at Stowe Hill. After completing the filling of the water tank, we backed up to the wharfside in order to fill the fuel tank - especially as they sell it at a very good price!

Eventually we were off by 10:20 - it was a warm and breezy morning, small fluffy clouds but generally sunny. No complaints if it stays like this!

A gentle, lock-less cruise down to Gayton - but we pull into the bank just before in order to have lunch. Plenty of choice for cheese as not only had we stocked up well but also Andrew had had large consignment from the excellent specialist market stall in Devizes.

Three of the bridges were constructed as lift bridges, but it would seem as if two of them are only 'heritage' bridges: re-constructed to look pretty but not actually usable. One carries a public right of way footpath across the canal and has to be opened and closed.

Setting off again after lunch we moved on to the junction, pausing briefly to empty the elsan and dispose of rubbish - we are quite unsure of what facilities we will find from here on. Soon we reached the top of the Rothersthorpe flight on the Northampton branch. These are narrow locks and we dropped down remarkably smoothly. In fact we completed just over ten locks in the first hour!

The approach to Northanpton is announced by the tall Express Lifts tower which dominates the skyline. We also noticed a large number of blue damsel flies, skimming the surafce of the water. You willl have to take our word for it, but Mike did manage to catch some on the photo - but at the resolution of the blog it is hard to make them out!

The last four locks are a bit more spread out but by half past four we were in the middle of Northampton and onto the Nene. Somewhat to our surprise, the river was very weedy and quite sluggish. In places, with very clean and clear water we could see the bottom where we might not have expected it! At least on this river we permitted to leave one set of gates open on leaving. (Since this means that you have at least a 50:50 chance of having to close an extra set on arrival, the gain is not as much as you might think!)

Before long we could see clear signs of the flood control role which the navigation plays - and which it is expected will feature strongly on most of this trip. Below Abington Lock the river becomes very much broader as we approached Weston Flavell lock and automatic sluice.

As we went through one of the last locks on the Northampton arm we met a boat which had come up from Middle level and the crew were familiar with moorings along the way. We gained some useful advice. As a result we were already looking out for some pontoons above the Weston Sluice - although only short there was room for a second boat to moor! (The pontoons are only available for overnight mooring from May to September - in the winter they are kept for emergency use if boats are trapped between the two automatic sluices - there is nowhere along the river bank to moor) We began to realise that we shall probably have to operate a somewhat different strategy to finding moorings on this trip - take what you can, when you can!