A Private Mooring at Marston Doles...Bring in the Excavator?

Friday afternoon we moored in Fenny Compton in the 14 day moorings, the 48 hour moorings were full at the time we arrived. Plenty of time to tie up and tidy up before making our way to The Wharf Inn, 300 metres around the tow path. We got a few drinks and sat down just in time for the entertainment, a 70ft hire boat was attempting to wind, he gave the boat moored on the private mooring quite a few decent whacks before getting pulled around by the bow rope. We had our dinner at The Wharf, Rachael had the cheeseburger, chips and salad and I had the steak and stilton pie, chips and salad both were ok! say 7/10.

Well the sun didn't show it's face until very late in the afternoon on Saturday. It started pouring rain around midnight and didn't let up, it was only the intensity that varied. I went for a walk into Fenny Compton Village, sick of being couped up all morning, a two mile round trip in light rain...very refreshing. There were very few boat movements today, mainly hire boats on their tight schedules. We had dinner at The Wharf Inn again on Saturday evening, the meals are nothing extraordinary, just your average pub fare.

A 9am start on Sunday as we headed out of Fenny Compton, this stretch of canal is flat and a little boring until you get to the Napton Lock Flight, one of the picturesque (I think) parts of the system. There were several of these concrete bunkers along the way, a hangover from WWII, not sure this one was in it's original position there wasn't much cover for it. The others we've seen are usually well concealed even though we are talking 70 years ago.

Passed a boat that regularly shows up on blogs, I don't think he has much water available to him. There was a sign on the fence just before we got to this boat advising that there were moorings available however, the off-side canal edge didn't look terribly hospitable for mooring. I wonder if the farmer just digs you a mooring?

Reaching the top of the Napton Flight (9 locks) there was a queue, just the same as when we came up the flight a fortnight ago. We were number four in the queue so there was plenty of time to do some polishing before our turn came up. We were fortunate to be going the 'right' way, it was a lot busier coming up the flight than down! There were a lot of hire boats so Rachael went ahead to the locks to organise things, many of the hirers haven't operated locks before so they can be a little disorganised.

Heading down the Napton Flight

After reaching the bottom of the Napton Flight we filled the water tank, the Napton taps are quite slow so it was a good half hour before we packed up the hose and moved around the corner on to the Napton Visitor Moorings. We didn't mind the long fill we were entertained by several artists singing at The Folly Inn, just behind the hedge. Once tied up we locked up and headed over to The Folly for a drink and more entertainment on the lawn.

By the time we got back to the boat, around 6pm the moorings were full, many of the boats preparing to go up the locks tomorrow.

We got away around 9am this morning and reached Braunston just before lunch, passing Napton Junction and the turn on to the Grand Union proper, along the way. We tossed up whether to go back to Stoke on Trent via the Oxford or the Grand Union, we decided the Oxford. We dropped into Midland Chandlers to pick up a few bits and pieces but walked put empty handed, we never seem to have much luck there. Cruising past Bridges 81 and 82 I managed to snap a photo of the signs that have been erected and by what I could see through the hedge and hear there is a lot of heavy machinery getting stuck into a new marina. Looks like a big one too! Sorry! best photo I could get.

Only three locks today, the duplicated locks at Hilmorton. I got to do the honours, Rachael found the gates heavy and the ground paddles hard work.

We finished off the day mooring at Rugby in the moorings just passed the footbridge. Not the best moorings in the world, they need dredging and the sides need re-alignment, it's hard to find where the real edge is. These moorings are nice and close to Tesco Supermarket though so we had a chance to do a good shop with a short walk to the boat with shopping bags. My backpack had to go back to Australia with my daughter, she needed the extra room.

Another day planned in Rugby for tomorrow, Rachael spied the retail park that was under construction last year when we came through has now been completed, I guess there will be several hours lost there.