Monday 4th July; Hillmorton to All Oaks Wood
It was a lovely sunny morning, so rather than leave straight away after breakfast Dave decided to wash the port side and have a go with paint restorer on a section of it. He injured his foot last week and it’s still sore, so I took Meg off down to the rubbish disposal for her walk – she didn’t mind! I also dropped into the Compoost office in the business units to ask about their toilets – Bonjour has a macerator (scary, noisy) with a pump-out tank, which we really didn’t want, but decided it wouldn’t stop us if the boat was otherwise suitable. And we’re really pleased with her so far.
Dave was washing and polishing the port side as we got back. The early rush for the locks had gone and all was quiet, but then we realised boats had started arriving again, so we made ready and set off for the top lock. There was no queue, but we had to turn the first two locks. At the bottom we waited for a boat to rise up and come out, so I went over to look at the orchids on the patch of grass between the locks above the top gates. We first saw these a few years ago when they had only recently appeared. They are doing really well now but again the photos on the SD card were corrupt.
We looked out for changes as we cruised on – the presence of a major road running from the outskirts of Hillmorton through the new settlement of Houlton was betrayed by the presence of traffic lights and a 'no right turn' sign at the end of the road crossing Kent Road bridge. The new Houlton Bridge hadn’t been completed last time we passed, and here the camera seems to have been working again! I think the scene selector wheel may have got nudged back into position – I couldn’t find any other explanation.
Clifton Cruisers looked unaffected by the new houses. It was changeover day and the last couple of hirers were leaving their boats with big smiles on their faces. We have been looking out for ash trees, and noticing that some seemed pretty healthy, but others seemed to have less foliage - but these look in a bad way.
As die-back disease can cause branches to unexpectedly fall, we will be careful about mooring under ash trees from now on. Then our tummies started to rumble – lunchtime, oh dear, probably too late for a mooring at Rugby for a big shop - and so it was. Nowhere to moor till Newbold, where we managed to get in, but not on the decent bit of edge.
The fenders on Bonjour are a bit of a mixture – the starboard side has two rubber rolling fenders on short ropes attached to the eyes below the gunwales, so spend most of their time lying on top of the gunwales. The port side has nothing. But we have three fat rope fenders which hang from those ugly white plastic jobs that hook over the handrail – they look ugly, but being moveable they are ideal on these moorings.
We had lunch and I went down to the Co-op for essential supplies. Then we moved up to the water point, where the pressure is good, and carried on through the short Newbold tunnel and past Brinklow towards All Oaks Wood. We moored before the wood this time, although the towpath is quite narrow, rather than going on to the other end of the wood as we have in the past. Good choice, as when I walked Meg through the wood to the other moorings, they were completely full. Here we could enjoy the sunshine on open farmland until sunset. Glorious.
No locks, 7½ miles, Newbold tunnel, store cupboards still nearly empty
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