Christine has noted that the blog has made no mention of our blackberry picking over the past two or three days. Not a lot but enough to make a tasty blackberry and pear crimble with custard for last night's meal.
As forecast, we awoke to rain. Although it was pretty constant it as not drenchingly heavy but enough to make sure that those outside got properly wet!
Before setting off, Mike was 'asked' by Christine to walk back to the top lock with the outstanding rubbish to dispose. He took the opportunity to go a little further and to chat to one of the CRT workers who were preparing for next week's stoppage. The mortice and tenon joints are slightly larger than the ones that Mike learnt to do at school! The principle is the same . . .
Although we have been this way before several times, there are still small thigs that have escaped notice hitherto. Often it is the out-of-place that catches the eye. Firstly, it was the bright red of the old postbox.
And from a different angle there was a railway signal! A nearby house also had another railway signal. (Close followers may have noticed that above we originally said phone box rather than post box -perhaps that was encouraged as a slip by the fact that there was one next door along with the signal)
Hopefully you can see how much the rain was falling.
Andrew had to take evading action when a towing pair arrived at what turned out to be a former bridge hole at just the wrong time. It was not possible to see immediately that there was a butty behind but at least it did not have to make and emergency stop, not easy when towing.
Andrew hopped off at the first road aqueduct into Weedon and walked around to pick up a paper. We moored alongside the church where we have stopped before for shopping and Christine went down the steps to meet him - only to find he was already almost at the bottom.
With half of the long pound still ahead of us we opted to have lunch on the go. Shortly we were rewarded by the rain clearing earlier than expected and by early afternoon blue sunny skies arrived and we were treated to another gorgeous autumnal afternoon. The only problem being that more and more leaves have fallen and in some places we had to clear the prop every few minutes.
This tree looks almost ready for winter but others are still laden with bright red berries.
Now what's not to like about scenes like this?
We made the briefest of stops at Gayton Junction to empty the elsan but with three boats all manoeuvring at the same time around the service stop - and hand signals not always conveying the intended message - it was just a little more complicated than it might have been.
Blisworth Tunnel followed a little while later and then we were at the top of the Stoke Bruerne flight. A Wyvern hire boat (Primrose which we hired in the past) just failed to see us arriving and set off down the lock but we caught up with them at the next lock as they waited for a boat in the other direction. We shared the remaining flight.
Since their steerer was willing to navigate between locks side-by-side we made good steady progress. Some visiting friends of the hire boat family were also helping and it was all very new to them. They soon learnt!
We continued on for a few minutes to find a suitable mooring away from the locks. It took just a little longer as initially the bank was not good for mooring.
17.7 Miles - 13 Locks
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