Day 118 - back up most of the locks towards Norton Junction.

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6 locks, 447 in total.







A cold day so wearing some extra layers. There were so many boats moored along the first part of our route that we were running at tickover for almost half an hour, just when I wanted to get a move on because of the cold wind. We looked in at the 'Heart of the Shires' shopping village, housed in what are termed model farm buildings, although we're not quite sure we understand. Anyway, it was old but beautifully renovated buildings around a courtyard, with more than 20 shops. It was a little like going to a very large garden centre, minus the plants – gift shops, local preserves and chutneys, toys, old-fashioned sweets. The best shop by far was one selling kitchenware. It must be very busy at weekends because it was almost empty today.







On to the locks and a chance to warm up. There was a single boat about to start the flight so we nobly postponed our pumpout and early lunch so that we could fill the double locks and save water. We were surprised that the lock still wasn't empty by the time we'd moored so I wandered up to have a look – and it was quite exciting. Water was pouring over the top lock gates as fast as it was emptying out of the lower paddles. I went up to the next lock – same problem – at this rate there'd be nothing left in the top pound. At the next lock a chap coming down the flight told me that, after all the rain, water had flooded the towpath at the next pound up so he'd opened up extra paddles to remove the excess water – hmmm! We puzzled over this with our paired boat and it still doesn't make sense – we hadn't had much rain and we found no wet towpath. A paddle has to have been left open and he just couldn't admit it. Thank goodness the canal is quite deep here because near the top of the flight the water levels were down by a foot or more – and presumably boats moored in Weedon were straining at their moorings.







Bought a few more supplies from a small farm shop that we'd visited a few days ago – trying the sausages this time plus more fruit and veg. A very chatty lady works in the shop and was telling us about a game of football that she'd had involving one of their dogs, the horse and 3 piglets – must have been quite a sight.

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