Painting Again

We stopped at Hawkesbury Junction for a couple of nights and a man with an ASDA van brought us our shopping.   There were plenty of boats on the move as we set off and turned onto the Oxford Canal. 

Kev turns off the Coventry Canal onto the Oxford Canal.

The Oxford is another canal which follows the contours and it winds it's way through open countryside on it's northern stretches.  Most of the bank is not built up at all, clumps of grass line the edge and so mooring is restricted to the designated areas.  Each day we saw the towpath inspector, from the Canal & River Trust, walking to check the fragile bank for breaches.   The high speed railway had accompanied us down the Coventry Canal and it soon shared the Oxford Canal's route.  Trains hurtled down the track and screamed passed in contrast to our 3 mph. 

The picture that didn't materialise:  I had the camera at the ready for a train on this section where the railway was so close to the canal but I guess they were running late!

We stopped at a popular mooring near Brinklow and decided to resume the painting of Brent III which we started last year.  We retrieved all our painting gear from it's various storage spaces and washed down one of the sides with a scourer to prepare it for a final top coat.  Then we realised we hadn't replaced the roller handles which we discarded after blacking the bottom.   After we'd joked about the situation to another boater he produced a roller handle and the top coat went on as planned.  

The canal flows through a short tunnel at Newbold and then into the suburbs of Rugby.  At Brownsover we stopped for shopping at Tesco and called in at The Range for roller handles.  

At Hilmorton we encountered the only locks in a 23 mile stretch of canal.  There are 6 locks set in pairs side by side so we only had 3 locks to climb.   Hilmorton also has a small branch of canal which leads to a boatyard and a collection of buildings line the bank.  

The first pair of locks at Hilmorton. 

On Sunday strong winds rocked Brent III and created waves on the canal.  We had already decided to stay put as our next stop will be the popular village of Braunston which could be busy at the weekend.   Although conditions were not ideal we prepared the front deck area for painting and were pleased to come back inside after giving it an undercoat.  

On Monday morning we travelled into Braunston and onto the Grand Union Canal.  We were surprised to see an empty stretch of moorings and picked a place in the sun for our solar power.  

Our journey from Hawkesbury Junction to Braunston