Tuesday 9 December 2014

All tucked up now

Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December

Another gloomy start but with no wind which boded well for manoeuvring in the marina!  We left our muddy mooring at Braunston and went straight down towards Calcutt.  Dave commented as we approached the scrawny bridge 100 near Flecknoe, ‘Not very impressive for the Hundredth Bridge on the Grand Union Canal’!

1 bridge 100 on GRAND union

We passed a boat with extremely tidy wood on the roof.

2 beautifully stacked wood

As we negotiated the bends before bridge 102, we had a momentary doubt – surely there aren't any lift bridges on this section?

5 not a swing bridge

But it was a tipper lorry on the road.  The workmen were still busy – this cheery chap kindly paused his bricklaying till we had passed!

3 cheery bricklayer

4 cheery workers

I wonder if this is one of the bridges that has suffered a ‘hit-and-run’ accident?

It was quiet for the rest of the trip to Calcutt, though we were able to share the top lock with  share boat Festina Lente with their amusing graphic before we pulled in at the wharf to fill up with diesel.  We went down the remaining locks by ourselves before Dave reversed us smoothly into our mooring.  We spent the rest of the daylight doing outside jobs, including cleaning up the mud!

We’d been really looking forward to a nice meal at the Bridge, having arrived after the kitchen closed on our last visit.  So we jumped in the car.  But in spite of all the lights being on, the doors were locked, the bar deserted and a small note on the door declared that they were closed this week.  Weird!  So we back-tracked to the King's Head only to find no parking at all as it was Gourmet Burger night and the place was heaving.  So back to the boat for bacon and mushroom baguettes followed by some left-over crumble and custard.  Not as exciting as a meal out but much cheaper!

On Friday morning we packed and tucked up Chuffed for the winter.  Back home to catch up with the Christmas shopping!

5 miles 3 locks.

Happy Christmas!

No comments:

Post a Comment