Tuesday 19th May; Napton bridge to below Napton Adkins lock
It was raining heavily at first light, though only drizzling by the time I took Jessie out at 7.30. About 100 yards beyond our mooring was a large patch of bramble on the offside, from which I could hear two sedge warblers singing along with blackbirds, wrens and a lot of other little birds. We weren’t in a hurry to set off. We needed to call in to the village shop, so we wanted to be sure there would be space to moor as close to the bridge as we could. By about 10.30 several boats had passed so we reckoned there would be plenty of space.
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| Napton windmill, one of those obligatory photographs. |
There was a kestrel hovering nearby but my photographic skills were not up to capturing a good image! And we saw (and heard) a lark ascending too. As anticipated, it was easy to moor. I left Dave doing something technical, I forget what, and went up to the shop. It took more than the ‘less than ten minutes walk’ the sign at the bridge said, but it’s a good little shop and worth the effort. I came back with what I really needed and also some tasty home-made snacks for later. When I got back Dave was polishing the new brasses he had fitted over the winter. He finished the last one while I unpacked the shopping and made a pot of coffee before we left.
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| Shiny brasses! That will make it rain. |
There were two volunteers at the bottom lock, so although we were behind two boats we were quickly up the first lock. The first rush had long gone, and the second was under way - we were the 16th going up this morning, and it was only 11.30! The lockies told me to watch out for the aggressive swan that lives round here. It had killed two ducklings a few days ago, and a couple of years ago had attacked its own mate. There was no sign of any other swan around today so I hope she left him before he could kill her. As I walked past with the dog he was sailing around with his wings held up in fierce display.
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| Approaching the second lock. The white blob is the killer swan. |
It started to rain at the second lock, and the rain came and went as we slowly made our way up the flight. The boat ahead was having to turn every lock, except when they had to wait for a boat coming down to take the lock from the boat ahead of them, so there was a lot of waiting about. No volunteers - the two at the bottom lock had both been ill so were staying at the bottom of the flight. Plenty of time to drink coffee (insulated mug) and eat our snacks (pork pie for Dave, veg samosa for me). But it was gone lunchtime and almost 1.30 as we came out of the sixth lock. We knew there were towpath repairs happening in this pound so decided to make a lunch stop where we could see there was space. We were tired and the forecast was for more rain so we stayed put.
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| The rain soon started again – heavy this time |
It was a very wet afternoon, though when Dave took the dog out later it eased off and by the time they returned it was sunny and the early evening was lovely. I made a cake during the afternoon and as I’d bought a nice leek in Napton I decided to make a leek and cheese souffle. I’ve got a good recipe at home, easy and pretty foolproof. The trouble was I hadn’t got the recipe on the boat and I couldn’t quite remember the quantities of flour and butter. None of the recipes online seemed quite right (the original book is rather old and in imperial measurements) so I had to make a best guess. And I only had a pie dish to cook it in.
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| Looks ok though it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped |
Although it was still nice to eat, the texture wasn’t quite right; I think I’d added too much flour to the cheese sauce. I’ll have to copy the recipe before we come on our next trip. While there was still enough daylight I popped out to take a photo of our mooring.
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| Not much of a view, but it’s quiet apart from birdsong |
It rained heavily again later on but wasn’t cold enough to need a fire.
1½ miles, 6 locks
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