ON THE MOVE AGAIN

SATURDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 2009

We’re on the move again. Good friends Ann & Brian, from the Nottingham area have joined us for six days. Our planned destination was Northampton, simple because we hadn’t yet been there by canal, but the seventeen locks on the Northampton Arm, my sore back and Ann’s stiff shoulder ruled that out. We decided instead to head for Foxton, the short flight at Watford Gap seemed much more appropriate for our creaky joints. A and B had travelled through the Foxton Locks some fifteen on a hire boat some fifteen years ago and were keen to see the changes.

SKYY was moored up just before the Braunston Junction where we lunched and properly fortified we moved up the six locks and on through the Braunston Tunnel with no spooky happenings this time. Brian is a proper sailor and has sailed the world, much of it with Ann, plus several canal holidays so he came fully qualified to take the helm, relegating me to lookout, no complaints, this was a pleasant and relaxing change for me.

It looks as if a start to repairing the major landslip immediately in front of the tunnel entrance is underway. A water run off has been constructed which will obviously stabilise the area and allow the reinstatement of the embankment and winding hole.

We stopped for the night between the tunnel and Norton Junction. The towpath along this section has undergone major repairs. Long runs of cement filled sandbags have been used to shore up the bank and the path above is now in really good order. I don’t know why the more traditional steel pilings weren’t used here, but in time the bank, I am sure, will have a more natural look and I hope will last as long as steel pilings.