‘Twaz a cold and frosty morning when Keith came out from the boat and said “Sod this.. tiz bloomin cold and frozen up!”.. and promptly took his coffee back back down into the warm (which, oddly enough the fire last night managed to keep the boat at a balmy 12 degrees throughout).. But.. its time to move on – need to start making plans for the weekend after next, and if were to get a hire car.. we need to get a lot closer to Leicester than we are now!
Plus, if this freeze starts to bite.. I don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere, and have a 10 mile hike to do just to get bread and milk!
Let the firm know I would be online as soon as I could, and why.. and that anything I needed to do I will catch up on tonight.. the advantage of having most of your colleges based in Minneapolis.. not only are they 6 hours behind.. so delaying the start of my day by a few hours lines up with theirs.. they can appreciate the cold, and how disrupting it can be 🙂
It was slightly heavy going, but once we broke enough to get clear of the bank, we were moving. The ice was not too thick, so fairly easy to cut through, just have to take care on corners, as once you have a trench to follow, turning tends not to be an option!
But again.. no boats moving – yet.. So we have the canal all to ourselves and onward to Welford Junction. Passed several moored up boats, with faces appearing at the window, as a boat passing (all be it slowly) in the best of times can disturb those on board – with ice to break through – the noise inside the boat is horrendous and sounds like someone is scraping down the side of your boat!
Ahh.. A boat.. and – a bridge.. bloody typical! You have the canal to yourself and when you do meet a boat coming the other way.. its at a bridge! Thankfully, no ice in this bit so I can pull over and let them clear so I can then get through. Its always calm and peaceful on a narrowboat – right up to the point its not! 😀
Arrived at Welford Junction after a while.. and decided to stop for a bit. I’m cold, my toes are numb, and I want another coffee.. so a quick stop is on the cards.. And to my surprise.. Rings on concrete.. There’s nothing here technically.. why would there be rings.. but anyway.. stopping – and kids can go collect some wood!!
” Celeste !! ” – snap.. gotcha!! Run !!!
Now.. left or right.. Right into Welford.. not a lot there – other than a Pub (nope.. need food not beer), sub-post office (which we don’t need at the moment) – and a marina (which we don’t need), and we will be needing supplies soon – and there are no shops within walking distance that I can find on Google Maps.. or Left towards Husbands Bosworth and the Foxton Locks.. Left it is…
Soon after leaving Welford Junction we arrived at Husbands Bosworth tunnel.. And, just after taking this.. spotted another boat.. firstly a bridge.. now a tunnel.. thats two tunnels in winter.. and two boats.. Well.. I’m not in there yet.. and he’s nearly out so I’m backing up and letting him have the tunnel.. I’ll go in when he’s clear as its nicer and easier to have the tunnel to myself!
For those that have not been through a tunnel.. I thought you may like a video of what its like in there… not a long video.. as I’m holding the phone & steering – the light, thankfully, is on my head (so its not normally this bright at the stern as the phone decided to light up too) !
Just after getting out of the tunnel, I was hoping to pull in as there is a supermarket in Husbands Bosworth within a reasonable walk, but nowhere to safely stop – so its onto the next place..
Spotted a large 4ft long, 4″ diameter log on the side of the canal, right next to a mooring spot.. havin’ that (I’ll chop it up for the fire later).. so stopped, got the log.. watered the dogs 🙂 and set off again.. It’s getting dark and I did consider to stop there for the night, but something said to keep going.. so we did (If there is one thing I have learned from Anna.. its to follow you’re intuition.. if your first thought is to do something (or not to do something), follow it)
Eventually we got a few corners on.. again in the middle of no-where, but a good mooring spot.. on a bend.. but we got the boat on a straight bit.. And there is a tonne of gifted wood here.. It’s like being in summer again.. stop and everyone darts off to get their bits.. wood for me.. dinner for the cats.. holly for Anna, wood for Celeste (who appears with a tree being dragged behind her!) – but there is no one for miles.. so if we need to we can run the engine until late, get some washing finished and not have to use the fuel cell..
So the roof is re-stocked.. 3 bags of wood sized and ready for the fire, some I need to cut up later in the week once I have sharpened the chain on the chain saw.. the large log from earlier is balancing the boat against the coal we got yesterday.. and were settling down for the night (There’s no TV signal – but we have MP4’s on HD connected to the TV – so no signal is never a problem) – the Internet is running a steady 4G – so its time to get on with some work.
Tomorrow its onto Foxton – I hope to stop there for a few hours as the 2×5 staircase locks are very interesting, as is the inclined plane that was there before the locks.
