Things can change....

.........and often do when it’s me deciding.

I awoke this morning with about three options in mind for my remaining travel to arrive at Calcutt boats on Tuesday. It was raining, so thought one was do I want to bother today, thought two was if I bother should I try to stop at Braunston which will almost certainly be busy and thought three was if Braunston is busy should I just bite the bullet and do most of the remaining distance in one hit.

9 O’clock arrived and it was still raining, so I thought I won’t move, 10’Oclock came and it looked brighter so I decided to move after all. It was chilly on deck when I set off at 10:30 but at least the rain stopped, arriving at the first of the three duplicated locks (6 in 3 pairs) I was delighted to see a volunteer opening the bottom gates for me.

Moving out of the lock another boat was coming down, the chap shouted he had used the lock on the left of me so it should be in my favour, it was a case of nudging the gates open gently and I was soon ascending that one, looking ahead at the third pair and a boat was descending in each, I was spoilt for choice but the left lock finished slightly ahead of the other so I took that one, the other boat wasn’t to know which lock I was taking and they also left their gates open, but a walker closed not only that pair but one of mine as well, everything was working well and I was soon heading to Braunston.

A lot of boat traffic now things are warming up but everyone was behaving well, including me.

Passing daffodils in the gardens, there were a lot more but they were in isolated groups.

And then approaching the long straight section past the Barby moorings, it is almost dead straight with lots of moored boats along the first quarter mile or so but I quite like pootling along on tickover when the sun is out and by now it was trying hard to appear.

Time for a quick selfie, three top layers on as it was chilly.

After the Barby moorings the canal takes on a very lovely open country and farmland winding nature, until you reach Braunston.

So by now I was getting close to Braunston when I passed under a bridge and thought ‘oh this looks ok’ so I moored up, that is one of the things I enjoy most about this, stopping out in the countryside if you see a nice spot, so I took option four, which I had only just decided was an option J

Having set the TV ariel I then settled down and watched F1 practice and qualifying, getting the bike out in between and nipping into Braunston for some bread and milk. The sun came out for a lovely afternoon, a pleasant day, glad I decided to move.

Tonights mooring:

Totals today: 6 miles : 3 Locks