Cricked out!

 Sunday 26^th May; Crick show, and a little cruise to Flecknoe

We were up quite early today.  Dave turned the engine on at 8, so the fridge would have enough juice to run while we spent the day at Crick.  By 9.30 we were walking down the towpath towards Napton junction, where Dave went to fetch the car from Calcutt marina, while Meg and I continued to the road bridge at Napton Narrowboats where he picked us up.  All the Napton boats were out this morning.

We parked in the village so we could get the paper, then walked down to the towpath and along to the temporary bridge over the canal.  We were delighted to see that the temporary footbridge had what looked like roofing felt over the metal walkway, meaning that Meg didn’t have to be carried over.  We had a lovely time at Crick looking at some of the new boats and dodging the showers – Dave had got his waterproof but I’d trusted the weatherman and left mine behind, which turned out to have been a bit foolish.  But I soon dried off.  Because of the times of our viewing appointments we had to have an early lunch, which turned out to be a good move – there were no queues, we found a vacant table, and managed to finish eating before the next shower!  I had chaat from the Indian food stall and it was excellent.

We were sitting on the bank in a break between viewings and suddenly realised that Cathy and Michael, who we met last year on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal, were just a few feet away. 

So we had a great time catching up for a while before it was time to leave.  We had seen round 6 boats and things were starting to get rather muddled in our minds, in spite of the many photos I took.

We drove back, Dave dropping Meg and me off at Napton Narrowboats as before.  Meg hates crossing double locks because of the slippery metal bits where they join in the middle, so we couldn’t all go back to the marina – it’s a heck of a long way round to walk from the marina back to the canal at Napton Narrowboats!  After we’d got back and had some reviving tea and cake we set off again – the batteries needed a boost, so we trickled gently along towards Flecknoe.  We found a nice Chuffed-sized space and moored near the farm in the sunshine.  Lovely!

Just 2 boat miles today, and rather more by car.