Foxton-Welford-Crick-Norton Junction.

We spent Thursday night at Welford before moving on to Crick where we were met by some bloke waving his arms and saying ‘clear off’. It was of course Graham who was a bit lonely as Betty had deserted him again and gone off on the bus. So we had him in for coffee. I popped up to the Co-op for a few provisions including raisins. I was short of these to go in my boat cake which I had started. After I had finished cooking the dinner I immediately put the cakes in. After coffee and cake this morning, Bottle started a loaf off in the bread maker and we set off for Norton Junction. It is lovely to smell the bread cooking as we cruise gently along. We waited for one boat to come out of Crick Tunnel and we only met one other boat in there. There were rather a lot of leaks in the tunnel roof so we needed our hats and coats on while passing through. On reaching the top of Watford locks we pulled over onto the services to empty the Elsan porta-loo. I wandered into the lockkeepers hut to look at the book swap facility that they have just started up.

I soon realised that I was not alone as these little Swallows were flying into the roof space inside. When we reached the bottom of the locks we were hastily assisted by a chap from a Canalslime boat who was anxiously waiting to complete the Leicester ring with his companion in a great hurry for some reason.

As Maffi says, why don’t people allow themselves enough time to be able to complete their holiday at leisure? When we arrived at Norton all moorings up to the junction were taken so we moored around the corner. About a dozen boats have now joined us including some old working boats en-route to Braunston Show next weekend. It has been pretty busy with boats passing by all evening.