For once the forecast was right - a cold and wet day! As it only took one person to steer for the whole morning, we were off in good time. The summit pound is a classic contour canal and for much of it the radio mast at Wormleighton acts as a strange landmark. Strange because it is sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right as the canal meanders.
It was, however, not a day for photos. Hence there will not be much of a story!
One of our beefs is that CRT do not or are not able to put effort into enforcing landowners not to obstruct the navigation. Here is a not infrequent situation in which considerable navigation hazard is created on a bend which would otherwise have good visibility. In this case nothing was coming from the opposite direction (otherwise we would have been too busy to take photos!) but other cases did arise where avoidance action was needed. This is clearly a case where the landowner does not care about the potential consequences of a failure to do proper maintenance. What we cannot see is why it is not possible for the enforcement or maintenance teams who have to walk the towpath at intervals to have a simple system to report situations like this and for follow up action to be taken. Excessive vegetation like this can be just as much a problem as over-staying boaters.
It does look from the state of the sign propped up by a bridge that the campaign against HS2 has lost momentum! Shortly before this bridge was another sign reminding boaters about where HS2 is planned to cross the canal.
We moored just above the Napton flight for lunch and enjoyed the first of this season's Christine's Warming Soups.
Alongside the top lock, as we spotted when we came this way a few weeks ago, is a classic car business, so here is a picture of another of its collection.
The wind was rather strong today, making navigation sometimes a little more challenging. The approach to the top lock is on a bend and a gap in the towpath hedge left us going sideways instead of entering the lock!
We descended the flight quite quickly despite the fact that all of the pounds were very low - we scraped over the cill at the first lock. Lock 10 still awaits the winter closures before it is repaired. Although there are a good number of hire boats around but no queues this time. Not a day for even one volunteer lock keeper 9when we came up there were several and they used this hut as a base where they kept a selection of publicity leaflets.
There were only a small number of buffalo to be seen today, all sheltering close to the farm.
We stopped briefly below the flight for the usual disposals and we were passed by a hire boat excitedly encountering their first lock, having earlier set off from the nearby Napton Narrowboats.
A van belonging to the company that services the water level monitoring system was parked by the workshops and two men were checking underground equipment. Perhaps this explains why the water levels were so low.
The landmark Napton Windmill was barely visible in the low clouds and heavy drizzle.
Before long we passed through Napton Junction and continued along towards Braunston. Although originally part of the Oxford canal - it connects the northern and southern sections, it is now more usually considered part of the Grand Union since it was widened to connect the wide locks to the north and the south.
The rain had earlier eased off a bit but came back in again so, just after half past four we succumbed to the attraction of a good mooring with a piling edge. Alas, although we could get a good TV signal, none of our phones could find a connection so uploads will be tomorrow.
17.2 miles - 9 locks
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