Doing her bit for the local community...
Back in Bugbrooke for the night and the bilge looks dry, morning will be the test though. We usually woke to about four litres sloshing around. Just a quick stroll into the village needed to pick up my usual monthly meds and we would be off towards 'the' tunnel.
Deb felt that as everyone had been so pleasant during our stop that she would dearly like to show her thanks to the community. But what to do? The only thing that sprang to mind was to support the local community cafe 'what, volunteer for the day says l' no apparently something more along the lines of a bacon sarnie and a cuppa coffee.
Should have seen that one coming really. I found it hard to disagree with this noble exercise so we wandered in to the Victorian Sunday school on church lane. I told Deb we will be the only ones there and sure enough, apart from the five staff/volunteer's we were met with several empty tables.
Wanting to help Deb out with her good deed for the day I ordered a mug of tea and a mini cooked breakfast. Deb upgraded her bacon sarnie to the same. The cafe, known as badgers break to the locals, has only limited opening hours due to the fact that it has to fit in with all the other hall activities so Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday they are open from 09.00 to 12.30 and on Saturdays until four.
In a village where the only foodie alternatives are a couple of quite expensive pubs the cafe was most welcome. Our breakfasts came with toast, and quite unusually we were asked if we wanted our drinks straight away or with our food. My default setting is always the latter, there's nothing worse than getting half way through breakie to have to stare into an empty mug, well apart from emptying the mug before the food even arrives! The grand total came to a more than reasonable £6.70 considering the quality (no nasty catering bangers) and even left room in the budget for a treat of a takeaway slice of cake for later. Bizarrely, and unconnected to the cafe part there were six new camera cases on a table for sale, possibly excess stock from a photography course or club. I'm not sure which, but after a little humming and haring I decide to treat myself with an easier way to store my SLR, lenses, charger and kit for £2. At three for £5 I nearly took the lot to put on eBay :-)
Without the need to stop and eat back on LJ we pulled pins and we headed for Blisworth tunnel and Stoke Bruerne. Not as hot as the previous day on the marina but warm enough and with no more than a stiff breeze.
This section of canal has seemed like two very different ones either side of the bank holiday weekend. On the way up to Gayton the first time hedges were very neat and showing the merest hints of green. Fields having been immaculately ploughed and sown were dusty and dry, church spires and rooftops could be spied through trees. Our journey up today saw lush green hedgerows, fields with the merest hint of brown with crops sprouting and trees in full leaf for the next several months.
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| Moored up ready to go into the marina the next day |
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| Now that is a wide beam narrowboat! |
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| And then another one |
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| All still very new and tidy in that marina waiting for Gary to fix our leak |
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