Crick Marina to Marston Junction

All winter the Captain had built this summer’s cruise plan around the weekend of July 20^th /July 21^st, the weekend of the 2024 Bedford River Festival. (See here for a reminder of the July 2022 River Festival experience)..Circumstances, however, (lock issues en route) conspired against Cleddau’s planned River Festival attendance this year. Instead Cleddau and crew did a southbound Grand Union trip, spent time with the Cheshire Three and made an out west road trip to Pembrokeshire.One life lesson learned is to seize opportunities in case they won’t be available for a long while or never present themselves again.  Back in Bedfordshire after the Pembs trip, there was one day of the 2024 River Festival still to go. So Boatwif and a friend headed into town to see what was going on - to have delayed would have meant a two year wait until the next boat parades in July 2026…There was lots to see at the River Festival, on the banks either side of the upper river      in  St Mary’s Gardens, around and on the Castle Mound, , in Russell Park and in the market square. But it was the action on the river that Boatwif wanted to see. There were fewer boats than remembered from two and from four years ago. (Were many other boaters deterred by the problems on the Nene, at Salter’s Lode and at Earith…?)Cruisers parade first, the stand out star boat being a Mr Wonka-inspired scene. Fun too was a boat all but hidden behind two large ducks. The Town Bridge was a good place to watch the steel boats as 5 narrowboats  plus the Artful Dodger, (Danish Camp’s trip boat), the John Bunyan B&MK Trust local trip boat and one wide beam boat managed their turns. How odd it was that the volume of sound from the wide beam’s sound system totally drowned out the music being played by the brass band performing on the Town Bridge …!  Competitive raft races are a traditional feature of the River Festival – what ingenuity goes into the creation of these craft. Being a gongoozler of boats and rafts on the river on one day was an apt prelude to being a Cleddau crew member the next day… Back up the M1 (Junction 18, a route embedded now) to Crick Marina… The departure routine is embedded too: leave a spare car key at the marina office, unload and pack away clothes and food stocks, photograph the electric meter reading, disconnect the mains power lead, untie the boat, reverse away from the pontoon,   cross the marina to the entrance – and give two beeps on the horn to indicate turning left.It was not a long first day’s cruise, just a mile or so to a quiet rural spot beyond Crick Tunnel,   to tackle the Watford Staircase Locks the next day.Down the 7 Watford Locks (for the third time this year). “Where are you heading?” is a usual conversation-opener as you wait for a lock to fill or empty…On hearing the answer, “Oh, the Staffs and Worcs Canal, that’s my favourite,” said the volunteer lock keeper, who owns a part share in a boat currently moored at Great Haywood.   The boat pootled along to Norton Junction, that place with the pretty cottage garden on the turn. The eight cygnets of the swan family seen here a few weeks ago continue to thrive. They’re fully grown now, though still in their adolescent feathers…  At the Junction It’s a left (Milton Keynes, London, no thanks) or a right (Braunston to the Midlands and the north). How infuriating that all those favourite mooring places en route to Braunston were free when Cleddau wasn’t in mooring need!   Onward, past the new houses on the edge of Daventry, into the Braunston Tunnel. It’s a two-way tunnel for narrowboats. Cleddau crossed with one boat near the eastern end, then, near the western end the bright lights of two approaching boats were seen. No problem with the leader – but only about 200 metres from the Braunston portal the second boat lost its way. Boatwif, perched on the front deck, was fixated on the boat’s tunnel light.  Why did that boat veer across the tunnel and lodge its stern against the starboard (right hand side) wall. “Whoa!” was her call – to both steerers. There was no water space left for Cleddau to fill; the Captain reacted and threw the throttle into reverse. Nonetheless there was impact as Cleddau’s bow was stalled by the oncoming boat’s hull… There were apologies and reversings, re-positionings and disentanglements.The crew of a following boat heard the impact, heard the apologies – and were suitably wary as they passed the nervous boaters creeping eastwards through the tunnel.Half a mile after Braunston Tunnel exit is the Braunston six lock flight. It was good to have lock company. Why were there so many “blue-shirts” about? There were volunteer lock keepers as well as Canal and River Trust staff making a repair to lock gate paddle gear.   “Would you like a bigger hammer?” the Captain bellowed up from the bottom of lock 5 when a stubborn bolt wouldn’t fit the hole. Up was passed the mallet, the rogue bolt was thumped – and back down the mallet was duly passed…When there’s a boat crew to share the double locks, onward you go…  Exit from Bottom Lock, past the Stop House (For Sale by auction in August, apparently),    past Braunston Turn and the route to Oxford and to Birmingham, out into the countryside, to secure a quiet mooring ready for an afternoon phone chat with a friend.Onward the next day, along the North Oxford Canal. Under the M45 and on towards Hillmorton Locks.  Mmm, just how many animal species are represented here?It was a day for nervous and /or forgetful boaters. The hire boat ahead was in the hands of absolute novices. “We’re lock virgins,” the woman panted, once the boat was in the offside Hillmorton top lock (of three). A crew member from an upcoming boat talked the new-to-boating crew through and onwards they meandered to middle lock, where it fell to Boatwif to supervise the operation. Meanwhile an upcoming boater to the parallel lock was forgetful of paddle drill. Lock progress was slow…  Onward, through Rugby, through the Newbold Tunnel, to moor up at Falls Bridge, near the Armada Boat Hire base. It’s a quiet spot though and only the local swan family disturbs the peace, pestering at the side hatch for food titbits. During the evening there were excited shouts and squeals. Four young teenagers were using paddle boards; a young boy and girl scrambled up into the private garden opposite, shrieking with alarm. Their two friends arrived on the towpath beside the boat to give instruction and support. The male swan had seen the paddle boarders as a threat and was keen to see them off.  Along the canal he ploughed, thundering on the water, wings widespread. A hundred metres further on the swan paused, turned and repeated the display back towards and past the boat.From inside Cleddau’s cabin the Captain offered sage advice: “Take your tops off and make yourself look as big as possible.” Oh, that he had seen the look on the young teenage girl’s face… Her eyes widened, “I’ve just got my swimming costume on,” she murmured. The teenagers on the opposite bank quietened, used their initiative, slid the board into the water and crossed the canal to the towpath side. No striptease was involved in the resolution of the problem, but maybe a lesson was learned about how protective swans can be of their young.The next day’s stretch of the canal passes through All Oak Wood - and then the site of the landslips at Brinklow caused by saturated ground during winter rainfall.   Trees in a cutting gave way, blocking towpath and navigation. How Canal and River Trust have worked to reopen this stretch of the North Oxford Canal. Onward then, moored boats (and some chickens) to the right, the Trent Valley fast trains close by.  A year has its own slow rhythm – and when the time is right farmers cut their hay.    Ahead is the M6,  the speeding traffic a noisy intrusion in the landscape. How strange it is though that when under the motorway the traffic noise is hardly audible at all. Faint shapes are visible on the skyline: Coventry.Overhead wires, switch gear and pylons signal Hawkesbury Junction.       Here there are safe and easy moorings. Just a few hundred yards along the towpath towards urban development fishermen congregated, bits of litter were in evidence and beside a small road bridge is a city sign.  At the Junction the waters of the North Oxford Canal join those of the Coventry Canal.  Down through the lock the next morning, past the Greyhound Inn  a right turn under the impressive bridge though Cleddau was still on familiar waters.  (Could there have been any more flowers on this boat?!)Within an hour Marston Junction giving access to the Ashby Canal (explored last year) had been passed. From here on canal memories would not be quite so fresh… It was September 2018 when the waters ahead were last travelled…Next time: Lock help at Atherstone Crick to Marston Junction: 35¼ miles, 17 locks, 3 tunnels, 1 tunnel collision, 1 swing bridge 2024 Totals: 222½ miles, 10 tunnel passages, 127 locks, 7 swing bridges *2024 Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections) – now 14 (“We’re from Narbeth,” from nb Serena)Tudor Rose enquiries: 1Footballs floating in the cut: 4