Headed off from Crick this morning rather early. The sun shining brightly and warming our backs. – needed to get a fair distance down the canal to be able to go through the Foxton Locks either last thing this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning. Being realistic we would rather have a walk on the way. On the seas by 8am and the girls ran us in shifts to get through breakfast. Kept going until we arrived at Bridge 39 where we tied up and walked along the bridle path over the local fields to Welford. Feet totally blocked up with mud and we grew a little on the way. Arrived at the village and checked out the pub situation. Headed to “The Wharfe Inn” for a coffee & lunch – a nice tomato soup with a couple of slices of bread right beside the canal wharf. When we were done, we headed off along the tow path of the Welford Arm towards the Leicester Junction and then turned left with 2 bridges to pass before arriving back at No 39. Headed on again and collected Jen along the towpath and came back to the Welford Junction but turned left toward Foxton. We motored to the Foxton Locks arriving just before 6pm and moored for our early lock attack in the morning. We ate in, enjoying a home made pasta dinner and fruit salad & custard for dessert. Did a bit of genealogy work with Rosie and Rob before heading off to bed for a possible early start in the morning.

Today we had an easy day on the narrow boat – started off from Braunston rather later than normal and headed back towards Norton Junction. It was a lovely warm and sunny morning. We travelled alongside a volunteer group that was working with some young, underpriveledged teenagers and we helped them as they learned to work the locks. It was an interesting 1-2 hours. They headed off right and we left at Norton Junction. We then went back up the Watford locks.The cloud was getting heavier, the wind stronger and halfway up the locks the rain poured heavily. We then had a reverse shot at the 2 Km Crick tunnel and obviously followed a wood fueled boat because we had to breath in his smoke throughout the tunnel. Finally arrived at Crick where we moored for the night. Checked out the local eatery near the tie up point to find that they would probably be closed for the night following a funeral lunch and the family refused to go home. Probably just as well as the menu pricing was rather exorbitant. We ended having a beer and drying out by the fire at The Wheatsheef before moving to the Red Lion for an excellent dinner and had Bumpy Lumpy (caramelised toffee sponge with cream cheese & served with ice cream) for desert. Arrived back at our boat and taught Rosie & Rob the card game we learned with Andrew & Susan Lodge.

Headed off (again) from Watford Locks and when we arrived at Norton Junction, we then turned right towards Braunston. Weather fine and sunny with periods of cloud. We had a pleasant walk around Braunston after emptying the sullage pump on the boat and picked up pork pies etc from the local butcher for lunch. The Church bells were ringing for the confirmation service as we walked to The Old Plough for dinner.

Got out of bed by 8am and headed towards Watford Locks to meet up with Merv, Mike, Julie & Paul who would be coming for a day on the Narrow Boats.
They eventually arrived as we were heading down the locks and joined us for the completion. It was great to see them all again after 5 years and they seem most interested in our type of holiday. After the locks we floated towards Norton Junction before ring left in the direction of Watling street bridge. We found ‘The New Inn’ at Long Buckby Top Lock where we had lunch (anly pub lunch so far which left something to be desired) and an interesting desert – a banoffee pie (banana & toffee – bit sickly). After moving on down to Norton Junction we turned left and went through a number of locks & bridges towards the Whitton Bridge. We finally had the chance to turn round and headed back to the bottom of Watford Locks where we bid farewell to all the Franks so they could return to Manchester – some 3 hours north.

Talked to the lock master at Foxton Locks whose job it is to schedule who passes through the locks and when – we were added to a queue which would see us going up through the locks in 1½ hous time. The reason for this is that there are 10 locks connected to each other with no breaks in between so there is usually 5 narrow boats which come down the lock behind one another and each seperated by a 1 lock gap and then we lined up in the same way to go up the locks, 5 at a time. At the top, we found a little shop which supports the lock historical society – we all had hot chocolates and a couple of clotted cream ice creams (just beautiful). We continued on our way but will have no locks for the rest of the day although we did go through the Husband-Bosworth Tunnel which is 1070 metres long and wide enough for 2 boats which could pass in the middle. A walk into Husbands Bosworth stretched our legs and the local store gave us some essential provisions. The weather is chilly early morning but the sun is there and warms up even if there are small showers during the day. We have seen some lovely wildlife and we had some swans with 3 cignets chasing the boat hopeful of getting any little tid-bits we might have. Bread was quickly found for the babes.

Eventually got going after breakfast and back towards Derby and Leicester where we returned the hire car and caught the train down to pick up the narrow boat from Market Harborough canal wharf. Received the run through about the idiosyncrasies of the boat and the canals before Rosie & Rob arrived from Filey. Jumped on and loaded up the narrow boat with all our necessities for the next week before placing the bags in Rob’s car as the space on board will be rather limited. Motored off towards Foxton Locks where we moored for the night right outside the Foxton Locks Inn. A great 2 course meal and then back to the boat where we had an early night.

We headed off to Bolton Abbey and collected Violet & Doreen on the way. Started with a coffee after locating a book on ‘Brit Wit’ which has been a good laugh and then headed off on a bush track walk for 2½ hours beside the Wharfe River which ran along the valley from the abbey. Climbed the hill before dropping back down ready to cross the fjord which would have created very wet feet for most of us but we discovered an elevated footbridge which saved us this time. We went to the cafe beside the river Wharfe which was a brilliant outlook to peruse whilst we ate. Returning to the car via the road only took about 20 minutes (why did we not come this way in the 1st place?) and we travelled in the direction of Burnsell where we had a wonderful ice cream on the River Wharfe and on to Grassington where there were film crews filming a new show called “The Village” about pairs of couples who will be brought into the village to compete for a free house as a prize. They will be competing against the local village community. I was chased down the street by a huge tractor that is part of the show due to go to screen in February 2011. We finished of the day by coming home over Blubberhouses to Leeds.