Flypasts

Saturday 10^th June; Bridge 21-ish to between bridges 31 and 32

The motorway was not intrusive overnight, and we barely noticed the railway.  As the boat was cool in the dappled shade, and we don’t need to go far today, we started late.  Dave mopped out the cabin bilge which seemed to have a lot more water in it than before.  Where had it come from?  It struck him later on that we had filled up with fuel the day before, causing the stern to sit lower in the water thus increasing the slope from front to back – so the trickle rate of the spillage from watering up had increased.

We were soon hot once we set off, as we cruised in and out of the sun.  We have been this way before, but that was about 6 years ago and apart from the little canal shop near the top of Buckby Locks we remember absolutely nothing about it.  I do remember walking down to the small Tesco which is the other side of the canal from Weedon village, down by the A5 I think.  At the time we had no idea that a pretty village lay the other side of the canal!  The only shop shown in Nicholson’s is that Tesco.  Thanks to other blogs, particularly Briar Rose, we had subsequently realised that there are offside moorings with easy access via the churchyard, though today we didn’t realise where they were till we were passing, and could see the ‘reserved’ sign on the space available. 

So we moored on the other side, needing to use chains, and walked down to the bin area and under the aqueduct to the village.  First, we went into Tilly’s Pet Supplies, where Meg had a fuss made of her by the chap there, who lives on Fellowes Ship (growing old disgracefully) which we passed earlier.  We bought a couple of new balls, as she has lost one, and came away with a pocketful of treats too.  The One Stop shop was a welcome oasis of cool for me, Dave having to find a patch of shade outside for Meg.  It was far too hot to go and have a look at the Ordnance depot, as we would have liked to do, so we walked back on the shady side of the street.  We found the path to the offside moorings and went up the steps to have a look.  We could have stopped on the reserved spot after all, it was reserved for Tuptonia, the Guides boat, and not for today anyway! 

We had lunch as the mooring was cool and shady.  We have noticed a strangely large number of noisy motorbikes today and yesterday – we heard in Tilly’s that there is a motorbike rally in Daventry which is not far away by road.  We were off again by 2, on the lookout now for a shady spot to spend the rest of the day.  We were in the sun for a lot of the time and it was very hot.  Freddie must have been baking in his royal cloak.

Hello Freddie

Once we were moving away from the noisy A5 we started looking for a shady mooring spot, as it is far too hot to countenance mooring in full sun.  I had to wear my old gardening hat this afternoon as I couldn’t lay hands on my favourite sunhat.  I think it must be languishing somewhere around the aqueduct in Weedon.

Poppies and cornflowers at the edge of a canalside garden

The canal runs roughly north to south with the towpath on the eastern side, so the afternoon and evening sun will hit any towpath moorings that face south or west unless there are tall trees on the offside.  We found what looked like a suitable spot between bridges 31 and 32, around Nether Heyford, facing north-west, under a tree for early shade and with a single not very tall tree on the offside which we hoped would eventually shield us from the sun.  Perfectly judged as it turned out!  We needed chains again as at Weedon, and as we started mooring a kite soared overhead – we must be in the south!  Then, as we finished tying the ropes there was a roar as the Red Arrows passed overhead, on their way from one display to another, though we only caught the second group of 4, flying in close formation as they do.

A good spot, all things considered

The shade on the towpath held till about 4, and we could relax in the cool for about an hour.  Then it was in full sun till about 6, but with judicious use of curtains and porthole glass removal it was cool enough, just, to be inside till the sun dipped behind the tree (not visible in the photo, it was just about level with the bow) and we could open the side hatch.

About 3½ miles