In which we descend in the best possible way: down Watford Locks, out of Norton Junction, and onto the Grand Union at last... and even beyond...

Ah, the joys of a summit pound. No locks for miles! 20 miles, in fact, on the part of the Leicester Line between Foxton Locks and Watford Locks. There are many lock-free stretches on the network, but I think this is the one we were happiest to see so far on our journey. Not only did we not have to worry about the stop-start-stress of locks, but we had a bit of breathing room as long as Watford remained open on the limited hours. So we weren’t in too much of a hurry to pootle through the twists and turns ahead, as long as we kept moving every few days. CRT had at last suspended the requirement for CC’s (continuous cruisers) to move at least once every 14 days, due to the ever-increasing closures and low water problems; we rarely stay longer than ten or so anyway. If we are prudent with our (sizable) water tank, we could theoretically last 14 days before seeking another water point, but we haven’t put it to a full test yet.

We’d also still not made a firm decision about which way to turn on the GU though were leaning toward turning right to the Midlands for a bit. Either direction would present us with more locks (and therefore the risk of more closures), though at first glance there wasn’t not much to choose between them. London-bound left would very swiftly require us to move through Long Buckby (flight of 7), and onward, heading southeast on another nice lock-free stretch toward Gayton Marina where our journey with Flow had begun last year.¹ Heading right, and west, would bring us to Braunston tunnel and flight of 6 locks, and unless we wanted to circle back toward Birmingham (unlikely), would then lead us eventually to Napton Junction and the South Oxford Canal. Although we could only go a few miles down it before turning, as Napton Locks remained (and remain, at time of writing) firmly padlocked, the stretch from Braunston Junction to Napton looked nice and was new water for us both. In the end, we put it off for a while and enjoyed our last few days on the Leicester.

Setting off, we leapfrogged Nelson along the first few miles, swapping at convenient road bridges – it’s (mostly) much easier to do this on lock-free stretches. However, there was another tunnel interrupting our first travel day – at Husbands Bosworth² and irritatingly there was a towpath closure almost up to the tunnel too. In any case, tunnels don’t always have towpaths through them, and often they don’t continue over the top in an orderly fashion, so we had to get creative.

Some of you have asked how we manage with our car and the boat… sometimes we Uber, as mentioned before, but as an example, here’s how we solved this particular conundrum:

I took off with Nelson from the last convenient road bridge and parked in the village just before the tunnel. Walked down to the canal, carefully checking with the CRT crew parked nearby if it was ok to access towpath to meet the boat (yes, all fine). Waiting for Flow to cruise along the intervening mile, I hopped aboard as she passed under the bridge, and into the tunnel we went. On the other side, the canal curves around, heads south and passes North Kilworth Marina, which is only about 1.5 miles by road from Husbands Bosworth village. So we moored up for a late lunch, walked back half an hour or so into the village to pick up Nelson, Shelden dropped me back at the marina and continued on toward our proposed mooring spot near South Kilworth. I cruised on with Flow, enjoying the open space (as you can see in the top photo – it was really gorgeous). Successfully rendezvoused at a lovely quiet spot near Bridge 37, just south of Sybole Spinney. (No doubt we could have Ubered it, but it wouldn’t have been nearly so much fun!)

After a couple days here, we moved on to Yelvertoft. We’d noticed an increase of traffic on the summit pound (not surprising, really) and we were still watching the CRT updates like hawks for more closures. So we were loath to hang around any one spot too long, no matter how pleasant. Mind you, most of this section is very pleasant, and Yelvertoft was no exception. There were a few conniptions of finding a suitably clear piece of armco that wasn’t a) occupied b) too shady c) too shallow – yes, the shallows had begun to reappear in some places. But we managed to find a convenient spot for another few days. Then it was down to Yelvertoft services for water and onward to Crick, where we hoped to nab a visitor mooring on what is often a very busy stretch beside one of the network’s most popular marinas.³

Originally we had planned to just overnight or two here, but the village was so beautiful that we stayed for a long weekend. Also, there was a very convenient services just beyond that we knew we could fill up and empty out again 🙂 What really set the seal on it was a Crick village Market Day on Friday and Crick Marina’s open day on Saturday. Why move the boat when we could hang around and have CAKE? Twice??

We did have to move though, and right smartly, after further notice that the Foxton/Watford hours were being reduced further and would soon be limited to weekends and closed otherwise. Fortunately we were able to head off the day before the closures took effect. Crick to Watford is not far at all, but the distance is mostly made up of the mile-long Crick Tunnel, so we left Nelson in Crick to call for later (definitely an Uber this time), and headed off on an uneventful cruise through. Barely a mile on, we only had to wait a little at Watford to descend, and it too was remarkably easy, thanks to the volleys directing us. Watford is a quirky mix of close-paired and staircased locks, seven in all. They are not, however, in a straight line, and I had an embarrassing scrape-and-wobble from one into another mid-flight. Watford to Norton Junction is a mere hop, skip and a jump…. so though we paused overnight just before it, decision time was upon us.

We turned right.

Yes, we might not get to Oxford or even very far on the Oxford Canal. But it meant we could linger in the Warwickshire borders just a little longer before thinking about another winter mooring. And I had only seen the historic Braunston area, with its splendid marina, by road. As the time pressure was now eased (we thought) we moored up just above the charming town of Daventry for a good ten days. As another heatwave approached, we accepted the shade gladly (though it wasn’t the best for solar here – other than a certain eclipse…).

Alas, even the famous Braunston Locks were on increasingly limited hours, so when it was water-topping time again we thought we should make tracks through and get onto the next long pound so we could safely hang out a while longer. We zipped through Braunston Tunnel (much more used to them again now!), and again with the support of splendid volleys, through the 6 nicely spaced locks of the flight. Then we topped, dropped, and emptied, and forged on through the next junction and onto the Oxford Canal. Westward ho!

And just as well, in the end – when we went through last week, Braunston were open from 10 to 4 with the last boat in at 2. Since then, with only mere sprinkles of rain, they have further reduced to 10 to 2 with last in at midday. Considering we may yet have to turn around and head back toward London… well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we’re ensconced near the village of Flecknoe, where the effects of drought are on full display. It’s still a gorgeous place – just not as green as we would all wish. More rain is finally predicted this week, at last… but it’s going to take a consistent run of downpours to bring back the green and pleasant to these hills.

1. Though it would still be still new water to me, Shelden had collected Flow from Gayton and single-handed her to Brinklow. ↩︎
2. Yes, it’s really called that. Husband wouldn’t stand under the village sign and let me take a snap, the spoilsport. ↩︎
3. We follow quite a few vloggers who regularly mentioned Crick, Yelvertoft, etc etc in their videos – it is always a tad exciting to see these places in the flesh after dreaming about this adventure for years! If you are keen to check out some, we recommend Cruising the Cut and One More Day Aboard, both of whom are very informative and frequently funny. ↩︎