The visit

Chloe and Curly (Abbie) were due to arrive on Tuesday morning. Chloe was going to spend the night with us then head off down to Bournemouth to go on the Razz and then leave Curly with us for a few days.

                                       While waiting for them to arrive we had a good old fry-up in the Lockgate cafe at Whilton locks

              As soon as they arrived we set off up the Buckby flight of locks. As you can see Chloe couldn't wait to start swinging that windlass.

Seeing as Chloe wasn't that keen on working the locks i took a huge risk and said to her you can have a go at taking Inca through a few locks. Curly and Hamish both looked a bit concerned. By the fourth lock and lots of crashes into lock walls she got a bit more used to it ,but in doing so she removed most of the paint from the hull.

                               Look at the concentration on her face….. Shame she never concentrated like that when she was at school !

                                                                                     Just like Carolyn they cant pass a shop without going in.

We moored on Tuesday night just along from the Buckby shop (above) and below the Top lock and had a very pleasant meal in The New Inn at Norton junction.On Wednesday morning just after 09.00 Chloe departed and we pulled pins filled with water then turned right at the junction and started heading North on the Leicester section of The Grand union canal

We soon reached the Watford flight of locks and Carolyn was back doing what she loves doing most.You can tell its getting busy as we had to queue at the bottom of the locks behind two boats..

                                                                                                                   Inca approaching Cracks hill.

After a wet passage through Crick tunnel we picked up this mooring below Cracks hill on the other side of Crick. We have passed it a couple of times before but never had the chance to go up it. So this time we decided to go for it.

                                                             And it was well worth the effort. The views in all directions are very good.

                                                                                                    Curly as high as you can get on Cracks Hill.

We pulled pins at 09.15 on Thursday morning and cruised for nearly 4 hours finally finding this mooring on the Welford junction and a bit in No mans land as we are right on the border of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.

Tomorrow we have the Husbands Bosworth tunnel to go through and then we will try and pick up a mooring below the Picturesque Laughton Hills.

                                            Happy Days