Monday 6 April 2015

Norton Junction

We have stayed at Norton Junction during the Easter weekend. On Saturday some baking was undertaken by the crew. The end result were very tasty cup cakes topped off with an Easter egg.

       

We also took a walk along the G.U. Main Line descending the Buckby flight of locks. Just beyond the top lock is a canal side shop selling canal wares. Inside the shop are a large selection of old oil lamps and a few old fashioned klaxons. I would like to change my modern electric horn for one of these, but they are not cheap, so it will have to wait a while. Anyway, in support of canal retailers we purchased a flower box, painted with traditional roses.

     

On Sunday, as planned we lunched at the New Inn. The food was excellent but unfortunately this pub is not dog friendly, so Oscar had to remain at home on the boat.
Today we woke to clear skies and bright sunshine. Having purchased a flower box we now needed some flowers to put in it. There is a garden centre at the bottom of the Buckby flight, a round trip of four miles. We set off with a rucksack which was duly loaded on the return journey, with a selection of flowers and a bag of potting compost. The end result now compliments the roof of the boat.

      

During our walk along the towpath we were enjoying the fresh air when, suddenly we began to smell strong farmyard smells. Oscars nose was twitching and on looking over the top of the hedgerow we could see why.

      

A family of pigs were wallowing in the mud enjoying the sun. This section of the country is also unique in that 2000 years of transport history, can be found running parallel within a hundred yards of each other. First, the A5 Watling Street, a Roman road. Second, the Grand Union Canal followed, closely by the Railway. This is finally topped off by the M1 motorway.

      

The above is the railway crossing the canal. The A5 runs parallel to the left and the M1 is to the right. Tomorrow we plan to move off to just the other side of Braunston. We have six locks and a tunnel to navigate, so hopefully we will get underway around 8 am.


  


1 comment:

  1. Nice to see you have some proper canal ware. Did you take Oscar in the garden centre? Winston thought it was heaven, so many things at nose height. .

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