Just messing about on the river - the River Nene !

 We are now gradually heading downstream on the Nene after coming down the 17 locks from the Grand Union Canal. We set off down the Northampton Arm on Wednesday (23rd June):

Here is the signpost at Gayton Junction where we turned off on Wednesday morning after deciding what licencing to buy for Environment Agency waters - we've opted for a gold licence giving us maximum flexibility. So we were heading for Northampton having come from Braunston. It may be less than 5 miles but there are 17 narrow locks down.

Less than half a mile from the  junction we came to the top lock. These are called the Rothersthorpe locks after the village we had visited the previous day. It is this flight of locks, being narrow, that prevents wider vessels coming up from the Nene onto the Grand Union.

Each of the 17 Locks has a mosaic of a letter which together spell "The Northampton Arm". Here is the 'm' from Northampton showing a mouse and a motor - a narrowboat with an engine commonly towing an unpowered butty.

There used to be a lot of lift bridges down this flight of which some have been restored.

The main part of the flight has locks very close together and here at lock 12 we are under the M1. We met a boat here on its way up.

After 13 locks we decided to call it a day and moored where a concrete side marked where a high pressure gas main crossed the canal. We were careful where we hammered in our mooring pins! The water was amazingly clear - it was not shallow, being about 4 feet deep, but the weeds looked as if you could touch them.

From miles away we could see this tower on the edge of Northampton. It was built by the Express Lift company to test their products and became the youngest listed building now it is no longer used.

On Thursday morning we carried on down to the river. This is the last lock, 17, before the Nene. We had to stop just below the lock to clear the propeller of weed as we were about to enter moving water. In fact the river is barely flowing, though it has a reputation for rising quickly in rain and had been on red boards (which means don't go boating) only a couple of days earlier.

Here is Leo approaching South Bridge in Northampton. We moored just past here to restock and to have a look around the town.

Just walking into  town (after using the handy Morrisons) we passed this Swiss looking house.

We've not been impressed with Northampton on previous visits but our views on the town have changed. This is the Guildhall which is a wonderfully preserved Victorian edifice which has been extended sympathetically in recent years.

The extension is around a courtyard complete with bronze statues of local people.

One of the figures is Francis Crick of DNA fame, who we didn't know was brought up in the town. You can see that his statue is holding the famous double helix.

On Friday we decided to do some more sightseeing around Northampton. First we cycled south to Delapre Abbey and explored the walled garden, admired the parkland and treated ourselves to coffee at The Orangery cafe. We may well return to go inside the house when we come back this way.

Next visit was to 78 Derngate, a terraced Georgian house which was owned by the railway and ship modeller, W. J. Basset-Lowke who engaged the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Macintosh to refurbish the house. The results were amazing but not really restful to live in. The picture is of the hall/sitting room which was dark but intriguing. The panel to the right allows light in from the stairs to the lower floor.

The guest bedroom shown here would drive a visitor crazy. The parallel lines make the surfaces seem bent when they aren't. George Bernard Shaw slept there and when his hostess asked if he had any problems sleeping he is said to have replied "No madam, I sleep with my eyes shut".

After an excellent lunch at the Dining Room at 78 Derngate, we set off down river. Three locks brought us to this flood gate which gives access to the Washlands where water is accumulated in times of flood. A gate is pulled up from the bed of the channel keeping the flood water away from the town.

Waters on the Washlands are wide and open.

At the far end of the Washlands is this pontoon mooring where we spent Friday night. We took prime position looking out over the open waters. This mooring is open only in the summer as it is on the flood side of the gates. Later two other boats joined us.

On Saturday morning we went through the flood gate to Weston Favell Lock shown here. This was our first Nene Lock where the downstream gate is a guillotine. Most, including this one, are electric so can easily be lowered or raised by a finger pressing the button. However the process takes a long time. You have to leave the guillotine up so going downstream the locks are bound to be set against you.

Here is the view from the helm as the guillotine lifts. The boats in the lock cut below Weston Favell Lock are at the Northampton Boat Club.

Having stopped at White Mills Marina to join the Friends of the River Nene, we used one of their moorings on Saturday evening above Doddington Lock. It was pretty windy as the washing is demonstrating.

 There were good views from the mooring of a lake with lots of bird life including a pair of great white egrets. This photo was taken with a long zoom. The village of Great Doddington is a fair walk up from the moorings but has good views over the valley and we rewarded ourselves with ice creams from the village shop,

Getting off our mooring this morning was tricky with the strong wind but we managed to avoid leaving one of us behind. The bank was not ideal and we had to use our gang plank to get on and off the boat. Today (Sunday) we continued downstream into Wellingborough for services and Tesco. There are hundreds of swans here waiting to be fed. The elsan point is not working at the moment and seems from the sign to have been out of action for some time. Wellingborough is not an ideal place to moor because of the noise from Whitworth's Flour Mill opposite. So, having filled up with water and provisions we pressed on.

The Nene reminds us of the upper Thames winding in a leisurely fashion through water meadows. This evening we've stopped at another mooring of the Friends of the River Nene at Ditchford. The red canoe seems to have been left here. We had a walk around the adjacent lake which is used for water skiing. Intriguingly today they are playing host to a group from the Philippine embassy.

So we have water skiing for entertainment and good bird life and song when it stops. We've heard a cuckoo and seen and heard a couple of oyster catchers so far.

Our plans from here are to meander gently down the River Nene to Peterborough before heading across the Middle Levels. We'd like some better weather: it has been cloudy, cool and breezy today, more like autumn than summer, and some blue sky would make all the difference. Please!

To Gayton Junction where we turn off the Grand Union

 As I type this (shading myself from today's afternoon hot sun), we are moored on the Northampton Arm heading down to the river Nene. But this update is about our journey from Stockton to Gayton on the Grand Union.

Our last set of locks on this section of the Grand Union was the three Calcutt Locks. We had stayed where we were on Friday because of the heavy rain but on Saturday we soon came to the bottom of the locks. Up two locks with a narrowboat called 'Eve' and then we stopped for fuel, our first fill up of the season. The picture shows the pound above the locks with us approaching Napton Junction. The boat in front is just turning left which was the way we were also heading.

And here Helen on the bow (looking for boat traffic coming towards the junction) has taken a photo looking back at Ian on the helm as we turn the corner.

Here's the sign at the junction. We had come from Warwick and were going to Braunston. To the right, narrow locks within a couple of miles lead up to the summit pound of the Oxford Canal. The pound we are now on was shared between the companies of the Grand Union and the Oxford Canals and the tolls for this section were disputed for years with the Oxford having the Grand Union over a barrel if they wished to carry goods (including barrels) between London and Birmingham. The boats behind the signpost are in Wigrams Turn Marina whose entrance is straight on from the junction to make a cross roads.

Now we just had to put this on our blog. Our friends, William and Daphne, have a boat called Jabulani and the owners of this one said that there are only two on the system. The name is a Zulu word for rejoice or 'be happy'.

We moored on Saturday about a mile short of Braunston on a nice country mooring from where we walked via Wolfhampcote into Braunston. Here is a distant view of Braunston Church from our walk. That is not a hot air balloon behind the trees but the top of a silo.

Wolfhampcote is a tiny hamlet with a large church with a squat tower. The church is no longer used for services but is looked after by the Church Conservators.

On Sunday we came to the junction known as Braunston Turn. We have come from Birmingham and left is the narrow (7 foot gauge) North Oxford Canal towards Coventry and Rugby. We were heading right on the Grand Union towards London.

Here you can see us heading towards this triangular junction. We go under the right hand bridge. Both are fine wrought iron bridges from Horseley Iron Works in Tipton.

Braunston is a place usually teeming with boats but on Sunday it was surprisingly quiet and we soon joined a queue of just two boats to enter the bottom of 6 locks here. They seemed to take an age and I fully expected loads more boats to stack up behind us but we still went in on our own. We had a mission to get up the first two locks and then moor before our son David and his girlfriend Ash arrived to join us for lunch booked at midday at the Admiral Nelson. Fortunately, there was a space to moor and we even just had time to nip into the village to do a little shopping including cake for our visitors.

Lunch was good and it was nice to see the youngsters again. The weather which had been drizzly and miserable, brightened up in the afternoon and David and Ash decided to join us for a boating excursion. Despite her poorly foot you can see from this picture that Ash did her fair share of getting us up the next 4 locks. To be fair so did David and he also steered through the mile and a quarter of Braunston Tunnel above the locks.

We moored in the open countryside beyond the tunnel and had tea and cake onboard before David cycled back to Braunston to pick up their car. We said our goodbyes and stayed there for the evening.

It's all junctions around here so on Monday morning we swiftly came to Norton Junction where the sign shows that the Leicester Branch of the Grand Union lies to the left, Braunston behind us and Brentford and London ahead.

This photo looking back shows the pretty cottage at the junction. We had just come through the bridge to the left.

Around the corner we came to the top of the Buckby Locks, a flight of 7 that drop down to a long pound through Weedon to Gayton and Stoke Bruerne. We are in a short queue but we wished to fill with water and empty toilet and rubbish, all of which can be done here. To the right of the lock is the New Inn which we have patronised on other trips.

We came down Buckby Locks with a nice couple, Phil and Christine, on a boat called Somerset Joy. Some of the gates on these locks are pretty heavy and the photo shows Christine coming over to give Helen a hand before they both pushed the other gate.

Here is the view looking back to the bottom lock as two boats go in and Somerset Joy emerges. We met lots of boats coming up as we went down which always makes the job easier and saves water.

Through a bridge and then we found these strange folk hiding in the bushes! Not to mention the dog.

We moored on Monday just short of Weedon and in the afternoon we cycled up the hill to Brockhall village. This is built of the lovely brown stone common in Northamptonshire with a hall. a manor house and a church. The village seems very remote though it is close to the M1 .

It also has these lovely thatched cottages covered in climbing roses. It is a truly delightful, quiet village.

The church at Brockhall village is surrounded by tall trees. The house just to the right of the church tower is Brockhall Hall itself. The cycle ride back took us over rolling parkland and past the humps and bumps of a medieval village in a field as well as back over the M1 again.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we cruised on into Weedon and out the other side. We passed these two fuel boats moored on a field where the crane shows they do lift boats out of the water. This is Southern Cross and a butty that together supply boats and houses along the canal with diesel, gas and coal. Who said canal trading was dead?

As we came through Weedon it was clear that an overspill weir was being rebuilt. The yellow buoys make clear that boats should keep their distance.

Here we are passing Weedon boatyard. It was at this point that a short arm of the canal used to connect to the Royal Ordnance Depot at Weedon. This was built in 1802 to store armaments out of reach of the French when storing them on the southern coast might have spelled disaster.

Coming towards Gayton we passed another blue field of linseed. It gives a blue haze not unlike the effect of bluebells in a wood earlier in the season.

From our mooring near Gayton we took the bikes and explored up the hills on both sides of the canal. Message to us - need to stop cycling up all these hills! We first went north of the canal to Rothersthorpe which gives its name to the lock flight we've come down today. It has this unusual shaped church tower.

Having looked at the church, we crossed a field, where the ramparts and ditches of an old Motte and Bailey Castle were apparent, to see this 17th century dovecot. We couldn't look too closely because it is in someone's garden.

On our way back to the canal we crossed the top end of the Rothersthorpe Locks so this is a little taster of the next blog posting as we came down these locks today towards the River Nene. Our cycle ride yesterday took us over the canal and then up the hill to the south of the canal to Gayton, another quiet village at the top of the hill. The hill was too steep for us to cycle up at one point but the speedy descent back to the canal was great - more than 40 kph on a Brompton!

So our next posting will take us to a very different waterway as we cruise down the River Nene from Northampton towards Peterborough. We aim to travel slowly and to enjoy using our new inflatable kayak for the first time. So watch this space.