Braunston Turn

Ok, I confess, I had a blonde moment yesterday, quite clever for a redhead! Braunston, as any boater knows, has six locks not seven like I said yesterday.

Anyway, I woke this morning to find that my bucket of herbs which I lovingly planted at Fenny Stratford had been totally trashed. No, it wasn't the local youths it was the local feathered vandals, they did leave me a present of a duck egg. I almost feel guilty that when that duck comes back to her 'nest' she will find it is no longer there.

We made our way through Braunston tunnel, meeting just one boat on the way, at the kink of course. Then it was down through the six locks to Braunston in glorious sunshine under cloudless blue skies. I felt quite envious of the customers at the Admiral Nelson enjoying a lunchtime beer beside the canal. I left Ray to work through the bottom lock solo while I went into The Boat Shop and bought us an ice cream each.

We moored by Braunston turn and phoned Brian to let him know where we were and he was with us in about twenty minutes to look at our fridge/freezer. It has now been regassed and seems to be working well. After that we wandered over to Midland Chandlers to get the part to fix the leak on our water pump. We found they had a similar pump on a special offer so we had the choice of £30 to repair our old pump or buy a new one for £60 with a 3 year warranty. we decided to opt for the new pump. so we now have a working fridge/freezer and a new water pump, fitted by Ray this afternoon. So all is well apart from our bank balance!

We have loads of time to waste now as I need to be in Banbury on the 15th which doesn't really give us enough time to go to Oxford and back, not the way we like to travel, so we will slowly make our way to Banbury, with lots of days off.

Today's journey 3.3 miles and 6 locks


This year we have travelled 136.2 miles, 152 locks, 5 swing bridges and 1 tunnel

In 2012 we travelled 876.9 miles, 675 locks,  55 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 31 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 2214.8 miles, 1912 locks, 116 swing bridges, 61 lift bridges and 72 tunnels