We walked down the Northampton arm past 17 locks, of which one was just in the process of being recommissioned. There were alot of CRT vehicles and personnel about including one lady who was removing weeds and debris from around many of the lock gates. We kept bumping into her on our journey both ways and eventually realised she was able to move about the arm so quickly because she had a car! She was very chatty and knowledgeable as part of her job is to control the depth of water in the canal. She was telling us how organic this is and how the depth can be altered by such things as lock gates being repaired because not so much water is drained away through leakage. She said the lock repair was now complete and that we could navigate the arm. It does look rather fun and the locks, all single size, are not nearly so cumbersome as the double width locks on the main GUC. There’s lots of paintings on the inside of the bridges as well as some graffiti.
Arriving at Northampton we found a Morrisons so topped up on fresh fruit and veg and bought some food for lunch. Halfway back to the boat we found a bench on the towpath and enjoyed a picnic of bread and hummus. I then did my Joe Wicks in the open air, to the surprise of quite a few walkers coming along the towpath.
Arriving back at the boat I sat on the bow feeling a little tired – think we had just walked about 10 miles. Revived by a cup of tea we then played online bridge with some friends before a quick supper as R had to attend a Zoom church meeting. Two episodes of Death in Paradise finished the day nicely!
NarrowboatTLC 