So we now need to put in some good hours for the next three days as we need to make Coventry by Saturday evening as Marlene and Wolfgang have a bus to catch on Sunday to Standsted Airport to catch their flight to Bremen in Germany.
We were on the cut by 7.30am as we wanted to be the first at the top of the Watford locks.
Unfortunately we were all a bit busy heading off, to capture a picture of the mist on the surface of the water which is always a magical sight.
You can see from the above photo how heavy the dew was. The temperature got to about 10c overnight which we all felt.
Last night it got so cool Wolfgang taught us how to light the diesel stove. It added a great atmosphere to the cabin. It didn’t take long to heat up the boat and then we were all stripping off and opening doors.
Along this stretch there are many beautiful old lock keepers cottages which people have made into gorgeous homes with picturesque gardens. Real chocolate box cover scenes.
We dropped off at Wolfgang and Marlene’s marina at Walton Hythe which is where they moor the boat over winter to pick up some fuel and get some travel tickets printed out.
We then turned right onto the Grand Union Canal which we have never been on before so this is all new territory for us. We then went through the Braunston Tunnel at 2042 yards in length.
We then meandered through some typical rolling hills of the English countryside enjoying the views. It was then onto Braunston marina where we have moored for the evening.
There are very many marinas dotted around the countryside and when you look at how many boats are sitting in them you get a good idea as to how much money is just floating there.
Once we settled in for the evening we went for a walk around the marina and into the town of Braunston.
Where we are is at the confluence of the Grand Union and Oxford canal which was the busiest section of the whole canal system.
The iron work on the bridges is very ornate with many of them being built in the 1700-1800’s.
This is an area where you get to see an amazing variety of canal boats and of course characters!!
Pretty amazing when you see signs like this on the canals.
This is the most further south we have been on the canal system and the countryside is different from the north. To describe it is hard.
Probably the best way to describe the difference is that the north is more rugged.
On our walk around Braunston we discovered a very quaint quintessential English village with your butcher, corner store, church and pubs.
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