We arrived at Braunston at three o’clock and immediately loaded our belongings on to Phoenix III. In addition to the normal items of food and clothing that we would bring for a weekend out on the cut, we brought some extras for our holiday in two weeks time. By the time we had sorted ourselves out, checked the engine and started it up it was quarter to four. We followed our neighbours on board Havoc II out of the marina and then headed towards the junction.

We were surprised to find very little waterborne traffic as we made our way past the Boathouse pub and turned on to the Oxford section of the Grand Union  canal. The sun shone although it was still quite cool, the wind was still present and there was the odd spot of rain.

We passed under bridge 102 near Flecknoe just under an hour after we had left our berth in the marina and tied up on our usual towpath mooring. We had dinner at half past five and then walked up to the village where we visited the Old Olive Bush and had a couple of drinks. This was our first visit to the Flecknoe hostelry and we found it to be a very welcoming pub full of friendly locals.

After an hour we drained our glasses and made our way back down to the canal. The walk back seemed a lot shorter and easier than the walk up to the pub, partly because it was downhill and partly because the wind had dropped.

By eight o’clock we were back on board with the fire lit and so we settled ourselves down for the evening.