Father's Day

The Grand Union canal has several arms and from Norton Junction we remained on the Grand Union Mainline travelling west towards Braunston.  Our journey through Braunston Tunnel was slower than that through Blisworth because, after entering the tunnel, we found our headlight wasn't working.  Luckily we always have our powerful torches at hand and along with Kev's headtorch we had just enough light.  

We also had a problem with one of our LED lights, which had developed an annoying flicker, so we walked over to Midland Chandlers for a replacement.   They had some electric bikes on display and the salesman offered us a trial in the car park.  He said "Anyone who tries them buys one".  And he was right!  The bike can be ridden in manual mode just like a normal cycle; in all electric mode using the throttle without pedalling or as pedal assist.  In this last mode you start by pedalling as normal and then the motor gives you an extra boost to make you speed along which is great fun.   The bike folds up for storage so we can keep it inside.  

A cheeky swan looks through our side hatch hoping for some bread at Braunston. 

From Braunston we continued west on a winding, twisting section of the Grand Union and moored up at Napton Junction outside Wigrams Caravan Site.  We'd arranged to meet Nic, Gaz and the kids for the weekend and Father's day.  We had some fun with various activities, including riding the new bike, and enjoyed a meal at the Folly Inn.  After our meal the landlord proved to be quite a comedian, pausing at our table to entertain us with jokes and even a card trick.  

On Sunday we all packed up an went our separate ways.  We turned north continuing on the Grand Union but this section of the canal has very distinctive winding gear to operate the lock sluices.  The turrets of the mechanisms stand next to each lock gate and it takes about 24 turns of the windlass to open the paddles.  

The distinctive winding gear.  The small white rod rises out of the turret as the paddle is wound up.

By the time we'd reached Long Itchington the novelty of the unusual locks had worn off and so we moored up for the night. 


Our journey from Norton Junction to Long Itchington