Last night I couldn’t get an internet connection so here is 2 days worth!
Wednesday was a really lovely day, the weather was superb for this time of year and we had a good trip from Husband’s Bosworth to Foxton Locks. We had to wait half an hour or so at the top of the flight for the boats travelling up the locks to finish, so we filled up with water and we were second in our convoy to go down.
As the weather was so good there were loads of gongoozlers at the locks! People were asking us how the locks worked, people were admiring the boat, some people recognised the marsh harrier on the side and told us they used to live in ‘Waveney House’ (where I don’t know), some people told me their parents broke down in their car in Ditchingham once, after they found out where I was from. They asked me that due to recognising my Norfolk twang as they were from Norwich, it was manic!
Once we had safely negotiated the two staircases of 5 locks, which took an hour, we actually managed to find a mooring and took Fat Dog to the pub, hurrah! We went to Bridge 61 and not the Foxton Locks Inn as it was by far the quieter of the two. After which we got F D on a little toddle round to the car park to suss out the facilities for elsan and rubbish disposal.
We travelled on and moored at Fleckney for the night. This involved going through the miniscule Saddington tunnel 880 yds!
This morning (Thurs) what a shock, it was raining! We have had virtually no rain for the last 2 months (a bit of drizzle last Sunday morning) and have got used to it. To start with it wasn’t raining very hard but as the morning wore on it got worse and worse. Normally we wouldn’t bother moving in bad weather but we need to get back. At the first lock (of today’s 12) we had to wait about 20 mins for the BW man to let some water down the canal as some of the pounds were empty. Because we didn’t think it was going to rain so hard neither of us had our proper waterproofs on, so after 5 locks we were soaked. Ken did assist himself in this department by nearly falling in! He slipped on the edge of the lock mooring and just managed to hang on to the side of the boat but both legs and feet went in! He has hurt his ribs again (on the other side this time). We had to stop, have a cup of tea and get changed!
Reinvigorated by being warm and dry (and some of us full of Paramols) we carried on and the rain eased off at last. We got to Kilby Bridge about 2pm and decided to stop.
We should be able to get back to Thurmaston tomorrow. Another 16 locks to go, oh no! Hope the weather is better!
Cheers B.
