Wednesday 8th July; bridge 103 to beyond Braunston tunnel
The early morning air was cool and Jess and I had a lovely little walk at about 7. It was already warm enough for the butterflies, which were out in force! Mostly the little orange gatekeepers and the slightly less colourful meadow browns.
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| Blurry, but sharp enough to show the two white dots on the black spot of the underwing, which identify it as a gatekeeper. |
And I was pleased to see two little green-veined whites flying around together. We don’t often get these at home, unlike the gatekeepers. It’s very like the small cabbage white in appearance but isn’t a garden pest!
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| Green-veined white |
We were on our way at about ten past eight, be-hatted and Factor-50’d. As we left, Dave spotted a hare in the field opposite – then another. We’ve not seen hares here before, though we hope see more as we go along the Leicester Line summit. There was a lot of space available where we normally moor, which would have been in full sun yesterday afternoon and evening, but the closer we got to Braunston the more boats there were, especially under trees.
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| Why did this widebeam choose to moor on the bend? Plenty of space on the straight section we had just passed. |
We crept round Braunston Turn, and there were plenty of vacant moorings on the stretch before the Toll House – then it was chocker, so it was a good thing we hadn’t wanted to stop! As we approached the bottom of the lock flight we could see two boats emerging from the lock. Weren't they tied abreast? Had one broken down?
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| Yes they were, and no - it was hotel boat Bywater and butty |
They had seen us coming and left the gates for us, and a CRT volunteer helped me close up. But he had no windlass – instead he had a big banner spread out on the grass and was hoping to encourage support from passers-by. Good luck with that in this heat! We usually pop into the little shop to get bread, but today there were extras advertised on the A-frame outside – since the sad demise of the Braunston Banger shop, a butcher in South Kilworth is now supplying sausages, bacon, ham, sausage rolls and pork pies. So I bought sausage rolls and a pork pie too – it would have been very rude not to. One sausage roll was soon shared – we needed the energy for the locks. There was still nobody else going up, even though we had delayed to go into the shop and chat to the volunteer. Sadly there was a boat several locks ahead of us so I had to empty nearly every one. We did meet one boat coming down, very frustrated as the boat going up (inexperienced hirers) hadn’t realised they should have waited for them to use the already full lock, and turned it right in front of them.
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| Putting my back into it? Actually no, just checking that the water had made a level before I closed the paddle on that side and opened the other gate! |
Jess likes to wander about at locks but was finding it rather hot so stayed on the shady towpath side.
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| Hot dog |
At the top we wondered, should we take advantage of the shady mooring and stop? If we stayed here we might get delayed behind the widebeam waiting to go through the tunnel tomorrow morning. And we knew there are shady moorings beyond the tunnel.
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| The beckoning coolness of Braunston tunnel. It was lovely and not very wet. |
We only met one boat in the tunnel. He wasn’t well positioned, and as we had reached one of the kinks in the tunnel there were some bumps as we passed. But it was wonderfully cool, and the only person who didn’t enjoy the transit (about half an hour) was Jess who was shut inside. As we neared the end there was a sudden horrible screeching noise reverberating round the tunnel. Was it our engine?
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| No – a CRT bod was chain sawing a fallen tree. The poor man must have been roasting, even though he was working in the shade. |
Though there were plenty of boats moored on this long stretch, there was a lot of good shade available and we chose a spot a couple of hundred yards past Welton Wharf. Time for lunch and a lazy afternoon trying to cool down. At least we could take all the windows out, but even in the shade the temperature peaked at over 31. And there was no boat wifi, and only intermittent signal from tethering my phone. But shade rules at the moment!
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| Too dark to read outside by 9pm |
6 locks, Braunston tunnel, 6 miles
