Stoke bruen Pt 4

After mooring up near Norton Junction for the night, we set off at a respectable hour the next morning to tackle the Buckby locks. Blimey but wasn't the weather getting hot! Neil and I were breaking out in a sweat just watching our crew winding away at the lock paddles and pushing the gates (we did manage to assist in the gate pushing bit as the locks were descending).

Also passed two of the narrowboat icons of the system - steamboat President and her butty Kildare (named after a famous America GP, I was told).

Very thirsty work in the hot sun and therefore had a welcome break at Wilton Marina for lunch and a bit of shopping in the chandlery. It is amazing to see the waterfall cascading over the bottom lock when a boats are entering the lock. Nobody had a sensible reason for this phenomena, but I suspect that the lock gate is just a little too low for the water flow from the pound above.

Didn't go a hell of a lot further that day, but moored up just short of Bridge 26 where there is a handy water point and beyond the bridge, a beautiful and very well appointed pub called the Narrowboat.

Having rested and sorted the necessary to freshen ourselves up we headed to the said pub for dinner. Not exactly a reasonable price to pay for pub fare, but excellent quality and the view was superlative - overlooking the canal and surrounding countryside.

Just before we sat down to eat, the haunting sound of a steam whistle sounded and I thing most of the patrons sitting outside in the garden were canny enough to recognise an approaching steam - it was not likely to be a steam train on a canal; so we all waited with baited breath and were rewarded by the sight of President sweeping around the bend in the canal, towing Kildare on a 70 snubber.

There was a lot of waving and cheering from the garden of the Narrowboat, genially returned by the crews of both President and Kildare. Also accompanied by many more shrill blasts on the whistle. One may be a little cynical, but could they possibly have anticipated an audience at the Narrowboart? Anywary It was a magic canal moment at any event.