Living on a Narrowboat
Living on a continuous cruiser on the UK canal system under CRT rules.
Yes. Meadows. These ones with sheep, horses and the odd duck and goose thrown in.
In the middle of no-where basically.
I’ve been here since Sunday, but I had to work on Sunday due to the weather being so abysmal during the week. I only managed to get out on that one day.
Today it improved somewhat, and I popped my head out and took some photos.
Not much of a move, but I’m on a different canal now. Blisworth Arm. Leads to the River Nene which has been non-navigable for the last few weeks.
I believe it’s calming down now, and the boats are starting to come past me again.
It’s very quite here. The bird sing a lot.
Last night, there was a fox or some feral animal scouting around the bank side of the boat. Owls screeched in the trees.
I suppose it’s better than the sounds of the A43…
This is my new location, commonly named ‘Gayton Junction’.
I was here last year, only under the A43 flyover, listening to the cars and trains and painting my boat during the day.
The boat is painted now, and I don’t have to stay under the flyover.
You can see Bonnie on the picture if you look closely…
Today it’s raining, as has been the pattern for the last 2-3 weeks to a month.
As I’m not at work, I decided to take the opportunity to have a look down ‘Blisworth Arm’ which leads to the River Nene and branches off from Gayton Junction toward Northampton.
It’s perhaps half a mile or so before the first set of locks.
Here it is…
As you can see, it’s the tiddly locks like you get on the Shroppie, Staffs & Worcester and all the other little inland canals. These can be easier for a solo boater, as you can run over the roof and your boat doesn’t swing around so wildly in the locks.
I’m used to the double locks now. I’ve been on them for the last 12 months at least.
Since I reached the Kennet and Avon which was 2016.
It’s about 4 miles from Northampton in this spot.
Has a pub, The Walnut Tree.
I used it’s services the other day when I needed to download a game to pass the time in the rain.
Arrived on Sunday. Moved through the tunnel, across the snow covered wastelands of Northampton.
Most of the journey is underground, through the Blisworth tunnel, which is if I remember rightly, a little over a mile.
Now located in Blisworth, where I will stay for the next couple of weeks.
Blisworth is OK. It’s got a pub and a Post Office, which acts as a shop for the odd loaf of bread etc.
There are many friendly ducks and wild foul here.
I registered with the doctors here the other day to look at my ear.
She said I should get some ear drops. The problem’s kind of gone now. Got to get some inhalers though after smashing mine up. Continue reading “Stoke Bruerne -> Blisworth”
I’ve been here for a week now.
Due to life events of one type or another, haven’t got round to updating the blog until today.
Last stop before you go into Buckinghamshire. Stoke Bruene is at the top of a set of six locks.
Not wanting to go down the six locks, I’ve located myself at the top near to the narrow-boat museum.
The village itself is fairly small. It’s entirely filled with parking restrictions, be it in way of double yellow lines or signposted ‘no parking’ notifications.
In this knowledge, I moved my car down to the CRT museum car park, near to the narrowboat museum, which is pictured here on the right with the signpost outside.
The first night I left it there, my wing mirror got bent back… Continue reading “Nether Heyford -> Stoke Bruerne”
