Day 13 - On The Narrowboat - Crick to Braunston

What fun we have had today! We left Crick after a little breakfast of toast (delicious bread in the UK) and jams we 'half-inched' from the hotels we stayed in. LOL!  Disgusting SA thieves!

I went walking alongside the canal while Paul drove the boat.  The ground was wet from the previous days rains, although with the very green and thick moss growing on everything like walls, bricks, pathways, house roofs, it appears that it is always this damp!

The fields are the color green like I have never seen before. With chubby sheep in some fields and beautiful fluffy cows in others.  The hedges grow between the fields and around the houses, so there are no walls around properties. Everything looks so healthy.  No litter anywhere.  When people pass you either in a boat or walking their dogs on the walkways on the edge of the canals, they greet you and sometimes comment on the weather.  Everyone is so civilized and friendly.  This is the most beautiful country to live in.

We then travelled down the most beautiful canals towards Watford where there were 7 locks.  I drove the boat through the locks and Paul opened the locks! He was panting at the end! Now he knows what hard work it is!  

 The boat is fairly easy to drive except like when you reverse a car with a trailer on the back, once you have gotten into a mess, it is hard to rectify.  Well, with a long narrow boat it is even worse than a trailer.  At one point, I drove right into the side of the canal! And another time Paul had to jump on board and help me! The lock keeper was even having a chuckle at me.  It is a bit like driving "dodgem cars". When we had finished going through the locks, I went to fetch Paul some peanuts and a couple of beers, and noticed that everything in the boat had moved.  The fridge had shifted, and in the bathroom, everything had fallen off the shelves... shows how hard I hit the side of the canal, that everything went flying!

We are now traveling though the Norton Junction and down to Braunston where we will moor up for the night.  Hope there will be cellphone and data reception.  We are now traveling through a tunnel which takes about 30 minutes.  Paul has to wear a raincoat as the water drips down from the roof of the tunnel.  I am sitting inside with the lights on writing this blog which we will upload later.

It is a bit warmer today, but the skies in the east are ominously black, so we may be in for some more rain.  Hope we can walk into the village later.

Paul is absolutely exhausted from the locks today.  Two lots of locks.  The last one was the Braunston locks.  Heavy and difficult to do on ones own. Paul really struggled.  

Thank goodness on the last two locks another boat joined us and piggy backed on the lock, which really helps as they do the one side of the lock and you can do the other. It also means that one has to drive the boat into the lock alongside another boat, squeezing in next to each other.  

I, in the meantime am becoming an expert at driving and maneuvering the boat.  Last thing my husband said to me before falling asleep last night was "you did good today". 

So we moored in Braunston and went into town for supper as usual.

Eating at this lovely pub called The Boathouse.  Nice dinner and they had specials.  Paul had the usual pint of the  local ale, rump steak, chips, peas and onion rings (he wanted to compare steak in the UK) and I had a haddock lasagne and side salad and a lovely lime, ginger and lemon drink.   
... note for Andrew...  The steak is nowhere NEAR a Bull Run steak!!

 

 We had to walk back in the dark, wrapped up against the cold.  Unfortunately when I climbed into the boat, I slipped on the step and went flying, so this morning I am feeling rather bruised and sore.  Silly me!

So another day has finished.  It is a week since I left JHB. It feels like much longer as we have done so much. This is really a different type of holiday, but beautiful and interesting. We are sure having fun!!!!