Two sets of 7 locks, a tunnel and a new bit of canal!

 The rain we were promised at 10.00am almost appeared, but managed only a few spots for which we were grateful! We left our mooring high up at Weedon Bec where we were up at Church roof level and set off for the first set of 7 locks which were about 3 miles north of us.  Last time we were here in February the church bells were going great guns for well over an hour, or even maybe 2!  Not today though!

The route up to the Long Buckby locks is quite windy to start with and then gets straighter.  It has the A5 and M1 on one side and the North Coast Main Line on the other, but it is still quite a peaceful place. 

The trees are starting to come out - some more than others.  The first two locks we came to had had their gates replaced which made for easier operation though they were still heavy!  We had decided I would do the first set of locks and Chris the 2nd.  Generally we were fortunate in that we met lots of boats going the other way which meant there were extra people to help with the locks and they were generally set right for us.  Then it rained - that was not too jolly but didn't last very long.  We went up the flight with a chap who was single-handing his boat, so no one to help me with the locks.  He lacked much by way of appreciation for my efforts which was a bit disappointing! 

These lovely winter cyclamen?? were at one of the locks we went through - very pretty I thought!

We got to the top of the flight by about 2.00pm and stopped to fill up with water ( and take the opportunity whilst moored to have lunch!)  A very short way past the final lock was Norton Junction which we turned down in order to get to Leicester.  We haven't been this way before. 

We are turning right towards Leicester - you can see the fingerpost on the other side of the canal.  We have just come from the left - the way the other boat is now going, and he had come from the canal to our right which leads from Braunston.  We'll be coming back that way in a few weeks time. 

It's a very rural canal which doesn't pass through many places or villages, but it does have lots of trees in a wide variety of greens. 

The flight of locks we are coming to are the Watford flight - they are now next to Watford Gap Services, but when they were first built, they were in the middle of rural Northamptonshire and had a pretty lockside house located at the bottom lock.  These are narrow locks - very different from the big ones we have been used to on last year's trip.  We had forgotten how much more quickly they fill!  The first two are standard locks, but the next four are an interconnected staircase - where you get out of one directly into the next.  This means that you can't pass another boat once you have started going up or down the staircase locks.  

I was driving up these and Chris was winding the paddles. You can see what a tall lock gate was at the other end of the lock and you can just see a boat in the lock above also going up.  There are water pounds next to each of these locks and to get the boat to rise you have to open the paddle operated by the orange mechanism at the top of the picture which puts some water in the lock, and then you have to completely open a paddle that lets water into the pound and then fully open the red mechanism to get the boat to rise completely. 

You can see the boat above us more clearly in this picture!

And this image shows you the boat coming up the flight behind us just getting into the lock we had left!

And this is just an arty-farty shot of the lock gate and you can see the reservoir or pound just behind. 

Once we were through the 7 locks we were back to a bit of windy canal again and then to the Crick Tunnel.  This is just under a mile in length and is pretty straight so you can just about see through it when you start at one end.  We met a boat coming the other way somewhere near the middle.  We both did really well keeping to our side, and there was actually a bit of space in between us, so I think the tunnel must be slightly wider than some.  

We passed a lot of trees that were getting into full leaf, and this horse chestnut seemed to be doing very well in the hedge next to the canal.  There were other fields full of sheep and lambs.  These seemed pretty focused on foraging!!

We have now moored very close to the village of Crick and had dinner in the Red Lion pub which did very well and so now we are off to bed and hoping to start fairly early in the morning to try to travel the very windy flat bit to Foxton Locks and get up the locks tomorrow!  It's going to be sunny apparently but raining on Monday - a Bank Holiday - who'd have thought it!  It's been a nice bit of new canal today so we'll look forward to some more tomorrow!