Date - 13 April Day - Easter Monday Start - Buckby 0900 End - Braunston bridge 99
We left Buckby about 9 am when a boat came down the first lock, we were planning to be in Braunston for lunch time to meet my son and his family. Half the towing path between Norton Junction and Welton Wharf is now open again although the final path finish hasn't been completed. We met 3 boats in the tunnel, the first two had tunnel lights that shone a pencil beam straight down the length of the tunnel. luckily for us it was quite misty in there which defused a lot of the beam until we got close to them. There was a steady flow of boats coming up the flight and a hire boat waiting at the top lock to go down, so we joined them and had a good run. We had just entered the top lock when my son rang to find out where we were. We explained our position and they walked up to find us and were able to ride down the last 3 locks. We then took them for a short cruise to the winding hole on the puddle banks and back to the Mill House for lunch. That didn't quite work out as they had just taken an order for 8 so we would have to wait 3/4 hour, goodness knows what they would do if they get busy as there was hardly anyone in there. With 2 children we decided to leave and go to The Nelson, again the service was quite slow, we heard them tell the people after us there would be 15 minuet delay but our food was a good half hour coming, while we were eating I spotted Derwent6 coming up the flight. After that we said our goodbyes and walked back along the towing path to Harnser stopping to chat with several people on the way. Once back at the boat I still have a few outstanding jobs to do, one I didn't expect was to touch up two chips in the paint on the side and roof, we thought we may have been targeted on the Coventry Canal and got away with it, but it looks as if I was wrong and we did collect a couple of stones. About 6 pm we decided to head out in the countryside for the night and moored again at 7 pm by bridge 99. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
