Braunston

Although the day began with a thick mist, this quickly cleared and a bright, sunny day ensued.

We set off as usual but had about 30 minutes cruise to reach Napton Top Lock. The first pound below the summit - which sometimes overflows and floods the towpath - was today very low and we had to squeeze gently over the bottom cill.

Three locks down, and going well, we met a loaded working pair coming up. They asked very nicely if we minded them bringing the pair up together (Working turns is a lot more effort. The motor pulls the butty right up to the bottom lock gate, otherwise it is a lot of hauling and the pound is not very deep) Of course we agreed and we watched as they came up. The pair belong to the Narrowboat Trust who maintain a run of domestic coal down the Thames as far as reading and then a short distance along the Kennet and Avon. One of the crew is employed by the Trust (as far as we could make out) but the others are volunteers.

Once they had passed through it was straight forward down the rest of the nine locks to Folly Bridge. The buffalo herd were in the adjacent field this time - they seemed to be elsewhere the last time we came this way. The number of them seems to have increased substantially, however. We believe that they do use them to make mozzarella.

Whilst Mike sorted out the usual facilities, including filling with water, Christine went to the nearby shop to buy a paper which she had ordered yesterday by phone (when we were here last they did not have the Guardian in stock but gave us a slip of paper with their phone number and asked us to ring - which we did!)

After finishing with the services, we moored up for lunch just a few metres around the corner, with another of Christine's famous lunch-time soups!

The next couple of sections - firstly to Napton Junction and then to Braunston Junction are lock-free and there was little incident, just time for one person to read whilst the other steered.

After the junction it is a slow mile to the locks as there is a continuous line of moored boats, both permanent and visitor. As we reached the bottom lock a couple of hire boats filled an empty lock right in front of us! Hence there was a little delay before we could make our way up but once we started it was very straightforward - but we did have to remind ourselves about our preferred method of working broad locks! Several boats were coming down, timed well, so that we completed the flight of six locks in just an hour.

By now we were faced with a choice: either to moor now and be in a communication-free zone or press on through the long tunnel and hope to find a good mooring soon after reaching the other end. For once we played safe and moored above the top lock and, indeed, we could contact neither the internet nor satellite TV!