16 locks, one tunnel and 15 miles

 We had decided to start early this morning, and Chris was at the tiller just after 8.00am today! We set off along the cut to Calcutt Locks which were the first obstacle and the last of the locks on this stretch of canal. There are three with quite large areas of water around some of them.

After that we came down to the Oxford Canal which joins from Napton which is the route that comes from Oxford and which we did in May last year.  To get on the canal here we turned left to take us back to Braunston.  It's quite a windy bit of canal for quite a lot of its length with some tight bridges which are always on corners, or so it seems.  This one has a big entrance and then a small way out! 

There are stretches where there are a lot of boats moored up, and this one was definitely more attractive than most!

We then arrived at Braunston where there is a complex three way junction - the way we have come, the route we were going on and another route taking off to Brinklow and Coventry, where we used to moor.

You can see the bridge in front where the routes diverge.  We came into Braunston and moored up hoping to go the Gongoozler's Cafe (but that's only open Fri/ Sat / Sun at the moment) and to the rope shop for a new rear rope which we successfully purchased.  They still make up ropes and fenders at this workshop and have all sorts of ropes and twines of different sorts and thicknesses.  Lovely stuff. 

So having been thwarted in our cafe visit, we had lunch and then set off to try to get to the other side of Braunston tunnel before Chris' call with the US.   We saw our first swan family - there were 6 cygnets, 3 are the other side of the parents.

Some of the buildings are lovely in Braunston - this one was the Toll office next to the bridge into the marina now. but originally as the waterways depot at the junction of the Oxford and Grand Junction Canal before the canals merged and became the Grand Union.

. I was on lock duty up the Braunston Canal.  Some of the lock gates are very leaky which is a bit of an issue, and so some of the pounds between them get very low if boats keep coming from the same direction.  Chris had some difficulty getting out of one lock - the bottom of our boat hit the cill, but he made it over OK.  We got through them and the tunnel in record time, but Chris' meeting had been moved which was very frustrating! So after a consoling cup of tea we set off to go down the Buckby lock flight - 7 locks which takes us down to the level on which the marina sits!  

Before we got to the first lock, we passed a point where you can see boats on the canal which goes north from Norton Junction which was the way we went 3 weeks ago.  You can see a red boat across the fields!

And here's a different view of Norton Junction! 

I was busy driving for the Buckby Flight - quite a few of the locks were set for us as we passed boats going the other way, but that makes the locks take longer whilst you wait for boats to come in and go out. So it was rather later than our anticipated time when we got to the last lock.  

After that, I drove us down to Weedon where we have moored lots of times.  This rather fuzzy photo is of a pied wagtail that hitched a lift for some minutes and strutted around the top of the boat and then seemed to fall off the front end, only to reappear a few seconds later and do it all over again. 

Chris put some dinner in the oven ready to eat when we got to Weedon which was good.  One of the fields just before you get to Weedon has been turned into a boat launching site with some rather unusual boats on the grass! 

And there was some rather pretty wild flowers on a corner by another bridge.

So now we are moored at Weedon Bec with another 3 hours of journey before we get back to Gayton which will be a pleasant journey in the morning and give us time to get home and sort ourselves out before we are off to London on Saturday for a Trustees Meeting - not on holiday, just retired people somewhere else!