Nottingham to London day 10, 11 and 12

Over the past three days we have had collisions, groundings, locks, tunnels, queues, late nights, early mornings, miles of cruising, a broken throttle and intermittent internet access. We have been retracing our way down the GUC from when we left Braunston boat yard after our survey and welding work back in the spring of 2009.


We got ready to leave our mooring point at Welford Junction and to pull up the mooring chains before a boat came cruising round the corner. Here are our new mooring chains.


They are much better than the g shaped mooring pins we had that kept coming away from the metal guide allowing us to drift slowly away.


The route was becoming difficult to navigate as the reeds, bushes and trees were so overgrown - there was room, only just, for one narrowboat. We had many occasions meeting other boats and Leigh counted 6 times we got stuck running aground. On a bonus we had a stretch of 10 miles without a single lock. We moored at Crick just after the marina to pick up some food supplies. It wasn't Delia's favorite spot as it was a keen dog walking route.

The next day we headed straight into Crick tunnel where we had our first encounter passing another boat - a rather hair-raising experience that Leigh takes all in his stride whilst I quiver on the deck.




It is fascinating to think how they used to get boats through these long, bleak tunnels using the chains along the side of the wall to haul through.


Wouldn't it be interesting to see the 'trad' boats with their fancy brasses trying to do that now. Not such an idyllic lifestyle, eh?

We approached Watford locks just before Watford Gap service station of the M1 and joined the lengthy queue of boats to head through. I had enough time to scrub the roof down before we set off for the flight of 7 locks.






4 hours later and we were through. We carried on to Norton Junction and I managed the 90degree turn to take the GUC towards Birmingham - we are on a detour from this point!

We moored under a vast canopy of trees along the stretch to Braunston...


We set off...


and first thing this morning we had Braunston tunnel to head through.


Easy, I thought. We had done this before and what with the other tunnels down, this should be fine. How wrong was I! This tunnel is over 1 mile long and is wiggly like a worm to navigate. We passed 6 boats going through too.


After hitting the side and careering into an oncoming boat, Leigh took the tiller on to get us through.

We whizzed thorough Braunston locks, 6 in a row by sharing the locks with a family aboard. At one lock a house overlooks the canal with this delightful stained glass - it reminded me of my mum's creativity.


We passed through Braunston (a hub for traditionalists on the boats) sighting this delightful little boat and I thought of the time as a kid being called Mouse by my dad's best friend Mr Billet - that I still am.


At Braunston Turn we took the Oxford Canal heading for Rugby.

Passing the World Service radio mast extravaganza....


and we blitzed Hillmorton locks where our throttle decided to give up the ghost. We suspect it's the cable that's gone so will be on the hunt for a new one at the local boatyard tomorrow. We managed to get the boat round the corner where we moored up in the Clifton Upon Dunsmore area of Rugby.