"Home" again?

On Friday I arrived back at Napton and just did a little cruise up to a lovely spot before you hit Braunston. On a fine day (which this was) it is a wonderful quiet, rural mooring. I was car hopping this weekend so walked back to get the car and parked it up in Braunston. Saturday was a fine day and I made for Braunston where there was a bit of a queue at the locks. In this month's Towpath Talk there was an appeal from someone who wanted to know the whereabouts of the ex-Challenger, Blackbird. Well I know where it is as I went through the locks with the lovely couple on board. He had just bought a horn like this and was having great fun testing it out. I was impressed and as I need a good source of warning, I later popped back into Braunston to get one! Only met one boat in the tunnel and I seemed to get through very quickly. Did another car fetching exercise.

I awoke to rain on Sunday but it didn't last long and I was able to mosey on up to Buckby Top Lock. A boat came up while I was using the facilities there, so I went into the lock and dutifully waited for a boat to share with me. I waited and waited but it seemed that the weather had put boaters off. After an hour (advised wait by BW) I went down alone meeting a pair coming up at the next lock which I also went through alone. However, when I got to the third lock there was a boat waiting there, as the towpath telegraph had reached them that another lone boat was  on its way. We shared through the rest of the flight. I took a break and fetched the car and then started on the final leg down through Weedon. Lots of familiar boats around and it really did feel like "home". Hello Penny, hello Malcolm, hello Danny, hello all my ex-neighbours up at the church. I moored up by Rick as he is going to do a little more cosmetic work on Olivia and I did the last walk/car trip. Over the weekend I walked about 8 miles Friday, 4 on Saturday and 7 on Sunday.