April has started with a bit of a bang. We have now accepted that we will be unable to attend Uncle David's 80th birthday party and, in theory, can now slow down and enjoy the journey. One small problem is that there is more bad weather coming in in a couple of days so we would like to get somewhere with shops and other facilities if we are going to have to sit still. The first idea was to hunker down at a place we have visited before - Brinklow. Not much in the way of shops and facilities but it has a post office/convenience store, a fish and chip shop and a couple of pubs/restaurants. Canalplan AC listed the journey as a 17.5-mile 2-day cruise. We set off early knowing we had an interesting Junction to navigate when we left the Coventry Canal and moved to the Oxford Canal - Hawkesbury Junction.
Hawkesbury Junction (photo - coventrytelegraph.net)
This junction is, for me, one of the most difficult as when travelling south, you have to turn 180˚ through a bridge and past the Greyhound pub that has tables outside full, during opening hours, of critical gongoozlers. As we approached a hire boat came from the Coventry direction determined to get through first. We hung back as we could see a 70’ working boat coming out of the stop lock. the working boat had nowhere to go and could only hover while the hire boat pushed its way through to the lock. After the working boat had cleared I slowly motored through the junction. To my joy and the gongoozler’s disappointment, it went perfectly, my helming skills must be improving.
When we reached our proposed mooring for the night we decided to carry on for a while longer. We kept extending the day until we had covered 17.5 miles and moored on the Old Oaks Public Moorings Brinklow.
We consulted Canalplan AC again and reconned that we could get to Braunston, It would be a 14 miles and three locks cruise that Canalplan suggested would take 7 hours 46 minutes. We had empty canals and few moored boats to slow down for and did it in 6 hours 15 minutes - well nearly to Braunston, always busy, the centre of the canal world, so we moored about 0.7 miles from the centre, not realising how muddy the towpath was between the two - horrible. We won’t be doing much sightseeing.
The rain fell throughout the night but we walked to Midland Chandlers on the edge of the village to get some bits and bobs for various jobs I wanted to get done.
What a disappointment! We spent many happy hours rummaging in Midland Chandlers during the year we spent at Calcutt Marina there was a great staff team that seems to have changed completely, that's not to say the new team is not knowledgable about their stock but they don’t seem, yet, to have the same rapport with the customers as the old team. The main disappointment was the stock levels, the shop seemed fairly well stocked until you started looking closely. I wanted bits to carry out three main tasks. I got the bits for only one, and why was nothing priced? I resorted to looking up each item I wanted on their website to discover the price, it was quicker than finding and asking a staff member.
We have stayed here four days and despite the muddy towpath have explored quite a bit of Braunston, sadly what we wanted was closed. On Wednesday we walked to the Gongoozler's Rest Cafe for lunch - closed. We walked to The Boat Shop - closed, both had notices saying open Thursday. We walked back again Thursday, The Boat Shop was still closed, but the Gongoozler's Rest Cafe was open, I had a sausage and fried egg roll and Sue had a Cheese Toastie - fabulous!
Keeping bags of coal on the roof through the winter has badly damaged the paintwork so we made a second visit to Midland Chandlers to get some non-slip interlocking square deck tiles which are raised from the deck floor by small 'studs' to allow drainage, The colour we wanted was not in stock but they assured us they were getting a delivery of tiles including the grey we wanted at 9.30 the following morning.
Over the days we stayed in Braunston we had planned to visit Daventry Laundrette but didn’t want to trudge several weeks’ worth of washing 0.7 miles up a very muddy towpath. We are now moored very close to the A5 not quite as close to the launderette as before but a taxi can get within 100m of us.
Our 5-mile cruise yesterday took so long partly because it included 7 wide locks but mainly because we stopped at Midland Chandlers to get the promised plastic deck tiles and - oh what a surprise - the grey ones didn’t arrive. We bought enough black ones to do the job and added an hour to the journey time.
The main excitement of the day was our passage through the Braunston Tunnel, 2,042 yards (1,867 m) in length. The tunnel has no towpath and is 15’-9” (4.8m) wide so as a narrowboat is generally 6’-10” (2.08m) there is plenty of room for two way working, when it opened in 1796 its construction was delayed by soil movement and the resulting movement may have led to the tunnel having a slight 'S' bend. We passed two boats in the tunnel, the first a hire boat slowed, as did we, to tick over as we approached each other, we both moved as far to our right as possible but without touching the tunnel side and passed without drama. The second boat, an “owner-occupier” seemed to be operating erratically, we could hear the engine note changing from fast to slow revs and back again several times. We approached slowly and with great caution, as we went through the “S” bend in the tunnel the approaching boat swung across the tunnel, the bow jammed against his side of the tunnel, his stern jammed against ours. Despite being on tick over we caught him a hard clout in the side pushing his stern from our side of the tunnel wall, which had the effect of pushing the bow away from his side of the tunnel wall and enabling both of us to continue.
What an absolute plonker - not him! Me!
From the sound of his engine, I knew he was having trouble and should have stopped and waited for him to pass, but no, I acted like a slow but powerful 17 ton bull in a china shop, still, no damage done and before 3.00 pm we had dropped down the Buckby top lock and moored on the 48 hour Long Buckby visitor moorings.
Saturday morning and the taxi picked us up a little after 9.00 am and dropped us again just 2.5 hours later with all the laundry done.
When we were here in July 2021 we had stopped specifically to visit The New Inn, it was closed Mondays, we found it gob-smacking that having recently re-opened after Covid they were not open as much as possible. Still they, presumably, know their business better than we. The pub was most definitely open this time, so we toddled down at seven o’clock for a meal only to be told they were fully booked. Seeing the look of horror on our faces the pleasant barman said “hang on I’ll have a word with the kitchen to see if they can squeeze you in”. He came back a minute or so later to inform us there had been a table cancellation so we could have that. The meal was pleasant and, at £33 inc. drinks less than half the price of that we had in The Anchor last month.
Sunday 10th we got going again, only for 4.5 miles but this did include six wide locks. Our destination for the day was Weedon, where we have moored before and know that there is a large well-stocked Tesco Express just a short walk from the canal where we could get supplies. On our way to Tesco we noticed a Chinese Takeaway, we haven’t had Chinese food for over a year so after a little research on t’interweb decided to stay an extra day to treat ourselves. We were not disappointed, it was one of the very best we can remember.
We left Weedon Wednesday morning planning to travel around seven miles to the visitor moorings at Gayton Junction. Sue walked the first six before getting on board. We didn’t like the moorings at Gayton, don’t quite know why, they just gave us a slightly uncomfortable feeling. We carried on, past Blisworth, where there was a very nice mooring area that did tempt us, and through the Blisworth Tunnel before mooring in Stoke Bruerne. A wander to the Boat Museum and ice cream put a good seal on a splendid day.
Thursday started with the seven locks of the Stoke Flight, like the seven locks of the Buckby Flight and the six locks of the Braunston Flight, we did them on our own. We kept hoping to catch someone or someone would catch us to share these wide locks but so far no one has.
I try where possible to buy diesel, coal and gas from fuel boats, usually owner-operated and far more deserving of my hard-earned than the fat cat marina operators, but I needed fuel, not that I desperately needed it but I try not to allow the tank to get less than half empty and it was getting that way so stopped at a fuel station and bought diesel 77 litres at £1.45 a litre for red, blimey I could have got white cheaper!!
We moored just south of the beautiful bridge, number 65, variously called the Ornamental Bridge, Samson’s Bridge and Solman’s Bridge, a grade II listed structure in Cosgrove village.
Ornamental Bridge, Samson’s Bridge or Solman’s Bridge - Cosgrove
Just a few yards from the bridge is a horse tunnel under the canal, this too is a grade II listed structure. Cosgrove also has a third interesting structure - The Barley Mow pub. We went there for dinner, sadly two of our selected menu items were unavailable but what we did have was tasty and the prices were reasonable.
Cosgrove Horse Tunnel - Cosgrove
Friday 15th April was Milton Keynes day. What hadn’t been decided was if we would stop north, south or in the centre of town. As we approached the north end of the town we saw a good mooring spot opposite Great Winford Park and stopped there. It proved a very pleasant mooring spot with good views over the park.
Moored with a view over Great Winford Park - Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes, probably the last of the London Newtowns to be built, and whose planners seem to have decided that the canal be surrounded by parks/countryside throughout its meander around the town, a source of peace and tranquillity for all. Sue walked for most of the eleven miles we travelled and said it was a most pleasant place to walk.
The most significant point about today's cruise (Monday 18th) is that we stopped at a supermarket 2-hour mooring and walked a couple of yards to a Tesco Superstore where we were able to get basic store cupboard essential items (wine, beer etc.,) and take the trolley right to the boat to unload.
After our shopping trip, we transited just three locks with just a few yards between them, a very popular gongoozler spot with the aptly named Three Locks Inn, we had the help of a couple of volunteer lock keepers one of whom helped Sue with the lock we were in while the other went ahead set the next lock and opened one of the gates. The numerous gongoozlers were very disappointed by our smooth and quick passage.
Saturday continued our “johnny no mates” journey through another 7 locks making a total of 36 without sharing with another boat, which after our previous experience on this canal I would have thought impossible.
There were 9 locks to negotiate today (Wednesday 20th) the first two we shared with a CRT workboat and its crew. The most exciting part of the first lock negotiation was when a pile of crockery decided without any prompting to throw itself to the floor with a very loud crash. Sadly much of the pile did not survive. The other 7 locks we shared with a professional boat mover and his girlfriend. Both were very experienced, Sue worked the lock the boats were in while the young lady ran (and I mean ran) ahead, set the next lock and opened the gates while the young man leapt about the lock like an Olympic gymnast doing whatever was needed to ensure each lock transit was as quick and efficient as possible. It seemed that in no time at all we were through the nine locks and chugging the long Tring summit pound towards Cow Roast where the Grand Union Canal starts its 45 lock descent into London.
Berkhamsted is just 2.3 miles from where we are moored and has a good range of shops including a laundrette and a DIY shop. We walked the towpath there, it was a very long walk (although only 2.3-miles), so long we decided to get a bus back, “wot a mistaka ’t maka” we waited an hour and a half for a bus that is timetabled to run every 20 minutes. Another couple at the bus stop had already waited an hour before we arrived making their wait two and a half hours.
The following morning we needed to return to Berkhamsted and got to the bus stop a few minutes before the bus was due, there was a young lady who had arrived some minutes before confirming that we had not missed the bus. It did not arrive and neither did the next; the third timetabled bus was late. Locals told us that the Arriva bus service is always this bad and was a long time before Covid caused staffing problems.
Despite the truly appalling bus service we have decided to remain here for 14 days when Sue leaves for Spain and Mark arrives to help me move the boat through London towards Bishop’s Stortford.
This month we have travelled 91 miles and transited 49 locks all at an average speed of 1.65mph and since leaving the marina on 3rd March it's 193 miles and 114 locks at an average speed of 1.63mph.