Dear Motley Crew,
On the 10th of June, we stopped re-tracing our steps and, quite literally, turned a corner. For those of you who are following along on the Open Canal Map https://opencanalmap.uk/ we turned onto the Grand Union Canal at Napton Junction and are now on our way to Nantwich, via Birmingham. Before lockdown, we had planned to cruise down to Oxford and then to Bath, however, after losing ten weeks at Banbury, we opted to forego Oxford, turn about, and head towards Birmingham, leaving the university town for another time.
Before we turned at Napton Junction, we moored at Napton-on-the-Hill for a few days which gave us time to explore the village and poke around the surrounding areas.
I find it astounding that people actually live in these "postcard" houses.
Not a bad final resting place!
Where possible, we've been mooring up in rural spots along the canal, which often means that our only companions are of the four-legged variety. Some nights, the lambs continue to bleat until well after dark. And that's not until10 pm!
As we neared Napton Junction we passed a hire boat company with its entire fleet bobbing about in their marina. Times are tough for the hire boat owners. Under the current regulations, only those who live aboard their boats have permission to move around the system. Leisure boat owners - those who use their boats for holidays only - are permitted to make day trips but not permitted to stay overnight on their vessels. Hire boat companies, however, are not authorised to begin hiring out boats until the 4th of July. As a consequence, scenes such as this are repeated all along the canals.
Whilst this will be a massive economic problem for the companies who depend on rentals for their income, it is, on the flip side, making for very pleasant cruising conditions for the liveaboards as it means that there are hundreds of fewer boats on the canals than there would usually be at this time of the year. One man’s meat …..
Another up-side of reduced canal traffic means that there is no waiting at the locks. In busy times, you have to take the locks in turns; one boat goes up and one goes down, as you can see in this time-lapse video of Stockton locks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OJrEXep070
Most days, however, we never pass another boat.
An exception to this occurred just when we needed it. As the top of Calcutt locks, we met up with narrowboat Mary Jane who was also travelling down. Most of the locks on the Grand Union Canal are doubles, which means that they can accommodate two boats. If possible, it's best to travel through these locks with another boat, in order to halve the workload and save the water. Given that we were both headed in the same direction, it made sense to team up for a few days, particularly for the infamous Hatton Locks, that were looming ahead of us.
An extraordinary brick-arched bridge on our way into Leamington Spa. Matanuska leading Mary Jane.
Another, more urban impression of Leamington Spa. Those of you who know The Captain well would know that when he saw this, he was ready to steam straight on through!
But this was the reality of our mooring......
On Sunday 14th June, we set off from Leamington Spa, in company with Mary Jane, to tackle The Stairway to Heaven. All I can say is - we made it!
The Captain, The Commodore and The Cat
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