Taking it easy

We turned round and retraced our route, taking it easy to rest Kev's knee which has improved. At Milton Keynes a pigeon took it easy as well, landing on the roof and hitching a ride for 5 minutes.  

The long Blisworth Tunnel took us north from Stoke Bruerne and this time I had my camera ready.  In 1984 the tunnel was reopened after extensive repairs which used concrete lining rings in places.  A section of a lining ring is on display at the southern portal.  

A concrete lining ring showing the circular shape of the tunnel.  The water level in the tunnel would come up to the two projections.

Inside the tunnel it's pitch black with our headlight illuminating the tunnel roof in front of the bow and Kev wears his head torch for some extra light.  At slow speeds steering becomes unresponsive so we cannot crawl through on tickover.  I'm not sure if a much increased speed improves the steering but as we were the only boat in the tunnel Kev increased the revs.  We sped through creating an impressive bow wave and shot out at the other end like a cork out of a bottle.  

Our view in the tunnel.  The headlamp at the front is creating the arc of light and Kev's headtorch is lighting up the boat roof.  The tiny white dot, just above the end of our roof, is the light at the end of the tunnel. 

 We stopped for a few days at the top of the Long Buckby locks near Norton Junction and on Thursday boat traffic stopped for a repair to lock 11.  The lock and pound below it was drained to give access to the gate paddle. 

A view I usually don't like to see - a drained canal, but this time it is for lock repairs.   A gravel bar is clearly visible and silt has built up on the right- handside of the canal.  

Repairs to the lock gate.  The gate paddle has been removed from the square opening in the bottom of the left lock gate. 

Although we have moored near a busy canal junction there is only one small grocery shop on the nearby Whilton Marina.  We decided to shop online and placed an order with ASDA.  We used the postcode of the canalside pub with an unusual first line of address: the cream and red narrowboat. The next day we took delivery of our groceries in the pub car park.  It was a very good service but I'm not sure how I ordered 2 chickens.  As we don't have a freezer we'll be eating a lot of chicken in the next few days. 

Our journey from Marsworth to Norton Junction