We’ve been on a few skiing holidays in our time and the most recent ones I start by saying to R, “I just want to ski for a couple of hours a day” which he knows is rubbish because once o amn the slopes I am hooked! It seems to be a recurring theme…
So much for an idyllic pace of 3hrs boating a day! Our recent delays have meant we need to get a move on if we are going to get to London by July 1st but even I was surprised by how much we accomplished yesterday – numerous locks between Braunston and Stoke Bruerne and two of the longer tunnels on the canal network, taking 30 and 45 mins respectively. Dark, wet, narrow. Perfectly OK if you have the tunnel to yourself but meeting boats coming in the opposite direction is a bit hairy. Not only do you have to cope with the blinding light of the oncoming boat, you also have to get very close to the tunnel wall and it can be difficult to then recentre the boat without pushing away using your hands from the dank, slimy walls.
Eleven hours later, having stopped an hour for lunch in the lovely cafe at Wilton marina (great to be able to visit it without having to wear a mask, as on the previous two occasions) we arrived in the picturesque village of Stoke Bruerne, infamous for two lovely canalside pubs and the canal museum. The museum was closed but The Boat Inn was so welcoming we stopped in for supper. Being Sunday, I asked for a sherry, which in my lethargy I managed to knock over before I’d even had a proper taste – the very kind barmaid replaced it without charge, which I thought was really kind of her.
An early start today in order to get to Wolverton by lunchtime so that K could get a train and bus back to her car to then bring it the moored boats (a round journey of four hours!) We were helped at the locks by an early morning walker, who also happened to be a boater. He and his wife rented out their house two years ago to live on a boat as he needed to give up his job to become her carer. She has been in constant pain for seventeen years which has only just been properly diagnosed as a trapped nerve. Slowly she is recovering and fortunately they are pleased with the decision they had to make to embrace boat life.
What drama! Having completed all bar one of the locks we needed to do we stopped for coffee three miles from our end destination of Wolverton. As K would like R to occasionally move her boat he decided to travel with her to learn it’s quirks as it can be temperamental. Relieved that the locks were behind us, they jauntily set off and left me to follow on. Setting up a podcast on my phone and putting it in my pocket, I realised the fender was caught, so I lent over to release it and PLOP. The inevitable happened – only a few hours ago R was berating me for not being more careful with my phone!! Sure enough it had gone in the water. Slightly panicking I rushed to get the magnet we have for such disasters as this but lowering it into the canal (amazingly my head phones had caught in the stinging nettles so I had a very good idea of where the phone must have entered the water) I realised the phone case would probably block the magnet from picking the phone up. In desperation I threw off my outer layers and in just my bra lowered my entire arm into the canal. How blessed was I that I could reach the bottom and as I fished about I felt the case and retrieved the phone. It still worked and I was one very relieved Mary!
Reconnecting with R and K, they already had been made aware of my saga, by a passing boat, who had witnessed me as I removed my top and plunged my arm in the murky depths! The only other mishap was my failure to pick up our magnet which I had forgotten all about in my excitement! A six mile walk after we moored up in Wolverton was my penance and it was worth the effort because there in the long grass lay my magnet, not as shiny after a few dips in the canal, so left unnoticed by passersby.
Returning to the boat, I tried to take some photos en route and realised, other than selfies, they were all blurred because of moisture behind the camera lens. I left the phone submerged in dry rice in a warm place overnight and hoped for the best! This blog entry had to be done on R’s phone!
NarrowboatTLC 