Canal on Ricky Moorhouse

Canal Holiday Day 4 - Stoke Bruerne to Cosgrove

Tue, 09 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

7 locks
8.6 miles

Model boat in the Canal museum

Laura and I woke up with the dawn chorus and decided to go out first thing for an exploratory walk. We headed up over the tunnel mouth where we found an air vent tower, a field with rabbits and a group of bee hives. It was lovely being the only ones about, with just the wildlife awake with us. Later the morning started properly with the only rain we had the whole week away, so we waited for it to pass before walking back into Stoke Bruerne to visit the Canal Museum.

Canal Holiday Day 3 - Weedon to Stoke Bruerne

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

No locks
10.1 miles

View through the branches

Reeds

A couple of flying ducks

This day got off to a slow start as the engine wouldn't start, although after phoning Calcutt Boats, Dad managed to get it going, so we arranged to meet the engineer at bridge 29, getting water on the way. Filling up the boat took so long with the water - they have huge tanks and the water seemed to take forever to fill so in the end the engineer met us at the next bridge after the water instead. The problem with the engine was the starter motor and the engineer had to go back and collect the part, so we were stuck in Weedon for most of the morning, but were able to have a nice walk along the towpath there.

Canal Holiday Day 1 - Picking up Wild Burdock

Sat, 06 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

1 lock
6 miles

Farm buildings

We headed to Napton to meet my parents and collect the boat - on the way we saw a blackboard advertising a cider sale at the Napton Cidery as they were clearing out their stock ready for their new lines. We got to Calcutt Boats at just the right time and Wild Burdock was ready for us to load up. We unloaded the cars into the boats, got kitted out with life jackets and then had our introduction to the boat and how things worked on it.