Too steep

Tuesday 5^th July; All Oaks Wood to (nearly) Hawkesbury Junction

This is a truly lovely spot along here.  The towpath is narrow and you have to use stakes (we didn’t realise there was a wider bit closer to the wood), but it’s open and sunny, not too crowded and the motorway is at a comfortable distance.

Early morning

Fab view

The sun was warm as we left, at about 9, but went in as we cruised through the woods, and with a chilly wind in our faces out came the woolly hats!  It was very congested around Rose Narrowboats, the moored boats leaving little room to pass and boats coming from both directions.  There were delays as boats were too far apart to really see whether they were waiting for you to come on or not.

 I was very taken with the misty mysterious woods along one of the cuttings, though I can’t remember exactly where –

And in the more open stretches the banks were beautiful with meadowsweet and the blue field geranium, which I love and have in my garden.

Geranium

We met a few boats, though nothing like as many as in Braunston where we saw as many on the move in half a morning as we had in the previous two days on the Leicester Line!  Of course we met a boat at the awkward bridge before the Ansty mooring, though he was more caught out than we were – no-one hit anything, but there was a lot of laughter.

We wished we had stopped at the mooring between bridges 11 and 13 mentioned by Irene (NB Free Spirit), as we went on for lunch to about a mile before the start of the moorings at the junction.  A bit noisy here, but not too bad.  We spent an hour or so assessing the work that needs to be done – quite a lot of varnishing, especially on the bits exposed to the weather – and things to be bought.  One thing that will require some thought is how to modify the steps up to the stern deck for Meg.

What makes you think I can get down there?

They are rather steep – we have got used to them, but Meg hasn’t.  Her little feet go either side of the non-slip mats so the steps must be covered with something grippy, and we need a door mat on the deck and on the floor beneath before she will even consider it.  And she says she needs someone to stand inside in case she needs a bit of help.  The grippiness should be easy enough to sort out, and she will probably need an extension of some kind at the level of the bottom step.  Chuffed had the Liverpool Boats design of a landing followed by stairs in a cu rve which were easy for her.  If she were younger we wouldn’t be too concerned, but as she is 12 this year we are thinking ahead.

I took her for a walk up to the junction, where the moorings were crowded and almost full both sides of the junction, and as the noise level from the roads is pretty similar to where we are we stayed put for the day.  Sadly too far for Dave's sore foot to walk to the Greyhound for a beer.

7½ miles, no locks