Sometimes, by the time I start writing this at the end of the day, I struggle to remember how the day started! Tea and crumpet is a given and then today I spent rather a lot of time, to no avail, trying to book my Covid vaccine. I have found a chemist near to the canal in Banbury so that’s where I would like to go but the appointments seem to be like gold dust. When I spoke to a very helpful lady on the NHS vaccine help line she said I have to keep trying at all times of day and night because every centre puts additional appointments on at varying times. It is just trial and error.
We walked back along the towpath to see if anyone was working on Daydream but saw no signs of activity. However when I spoke to James later in the day he said N had been busy doing the trim so perhaps he wasn’t visible from the outside! We walked along the Leicester arm – it’s just over 40miles long so we only did a fraction of its length. Then back on the boat and we were off towards the Braunston tunnel that is next to Daventry. It was very familiar territory but amazing to think we were here, facing in the opposite direction, five months ago. We were such newbies then and thought our nearest supermarket was a 45 minute walk. Today, so much more adept at gleaning information from Google maps, we found a Tesco Express 15 minutes from the towpath. We did get a bit lost in one of the numerous housing estates trying to find it. Not helped by the fact I was chatting away on the phone to a friend rather than paying attention to where we were headed!
Loaded up with crisps and biscuits to keep R happy (I think our next supermarket of any size will be in Banbury) we entered into the Braunston tunnel, a tad shorter than Blisworth but long enough. It’s so hard to keep one’s concentration the entire way through but I was delighted to come out the other end without touching the side (slightly debated by R who thought he felt a slight nudge at the back once, but I didn’t feel anything so I think his imagination was working overtime!). Thinking that was enough for one day we moored the boat and sat down inside to look at our emails. At which point we realised we had no internet signal. A flight of five locks later we entered a pound that showed 4G on our phones so again moored up. I cooked supper and we settled down to watch Endeavour and then realised we still had insufficient internet signal so R moved the boat in the pitch black using the midrope and balancing a handheld torch, whilst I looked for 4G signal appearing on my phone. At the furthest point that we could moor, with our bow rope attached to the first lock bollard indicating a lock ahead, we found we had sufficient signal to watch Endeavour and secured the boat yet again. We also want to be able to join our 8am Friday prayer Zoom, although the thought of an excuse for a lie-in was quite appealing!
Braunston is usually a hive of activity, a central hub for many boaters as its a crossways between major towns and cities, such as Birmingham, Leicester, Warwick, Coventry, Rugby, Banbury and Oxford and it directly links to the Oxford canal. Not so much happening at the moment but plenty of the rental boats sitting waiting for occupancy once the season starts, and quite a few liveaboards on the towpath. In high season I imagine it is mayhem! I took an evening stroll and saw a very stunning red sky as the sun was setting, a truly beautiful sight.
NarrowboatTLC 