Last night’s clear skies brought some of the lowest temperatures of the summer. It was chilly when we awoke at six but we could already see the blue sky outside so we knew we were in for a good day. Tea, coffee, usual stuff before setting off from the visitor moorings and working our way up through Cosgrove lock. I filled the water and emptied the toilet above the lock while Sue nipped to the local shop which is on a caravan site nearby where she picked up some bits and pieces. The local church clock was chiming nine when we untied and left the amenity point. We made our way through the countryside in the morning sunshine, a strange sensation with the sun on our backs and a cool wind on our faces. Sue prepared lunch as we went along so that we could eat as soon as we were able to stop.

With no locks and few moored boats it wasn’t even eleven o’clock by the time we reached the bottom lock at Stoke Bruerne. Three boats were on the large water point there and it soon became obvious that they had recently come down through the lock flight. It didn’t take us long to get up through the first five as they were more our less in our favour. Our lone boater ‘mate’ from Fenny Stratford passed us on the towpath with a camera in his hand and declared that he was walking up to check the moorings out. We carried on up through the last two locks and as we did so, the local church chimed out the message that it was midday. We left the top lock before finding a mooring about a hundred yards from the canal museum. We ate lunch, cheese and potato pie (Sue insists on slipping in these vegetarian days, hoping I won’t notice!) and it was delicious especially as we were able to sit outside and eat it.

After lunch we locked up and walked down to the Navigation pub where we had a drink and where we also watched a couple of boats coming up through the locks. First out was a Napton hire boat closely followed by Fenny Stratford man who laughed as he passed us and declared that he had managed to get someone to do all of the locks for him. We saw him later when we returned to our mooring, he pulled in a couple of boat lengths in front of us and then headed in the direction of the museum with his camera slung over his shoulder.

We sat outside for a while and chatted while the trip boat made its way up and down the cut and gongoozlers made their way up and down the footpath. By six o’clock we were inside and settling down for the night.