Warwick to Long Buckby

Warwick to Radford 7 miles and 4 locks

We got back to LJ at around 5pm last Monday and left the Salisford Arm Tuesday morning, stopping off in Leamington Spa to visit Lidl which is right next to the canal, and also Pets at Home which was a short stroll away. So with cupboards stocked for both us and Dudley we continued on our way. Passing through Leamington Spa itself we approached a footbridge, both James and I notice the five kids on it, with two carrying black bin bags. As they lifted their bags over the railings James starting videoing and I pointed my camera at them, the older of the group disappeared, one put his bag, put it on the floor, smiled at us and put his thumbs up. The other one carrying the bag proceeded to drop in onto the front bow as we passed underneath and then was shouting at us to F Off. Judging by the amount of black bags on the towpath just after we weren't the first it had happened to and unfortunately I don't think we'll be the last either. We continued up another couple of locks before stopping for the night.

The nasty little brats in Leamington Spa

Radford to Long Itchington 4 miles and 8 locks

We left the next morning and continued through the countryside, the banks seem to have missed out on trimming here and places we stopped at a couple of years ago were so overgrown they were almost unrecognisable. We went through the Bascote Locks, which comprise two normal locks and then a staricase of two. We continued on our merry way stopping at Long Itchington where blog reader on Pintail was moored opposite, sorry didn't get your name but hello, and I'm nearly up to date with the blog :)

Long Itchington to Flecknoe 6 miles and 13 locks

We made good timing up the Stockton locks as there were two Willow Wren boats following us with 18 kids on board, so at some locks a couple of them came to help us through. These locks are the same as the Hatton flight with the hydraulic paddle gear and the old narrow locks alongside. This would have been the Warwick and Napton Canal before it became the Grand Union. We then had a good level section before the three locks at Calcutt and the last of the hydraulic paddle gear. We reached Napton Junction and turned left. I think prior to the Grand Union being set up this section was actually the Oxford Canal, but is now the Grand Union and links the North and South Oxford Canal.

Flecknoe to Brauston 3 miles and 0 locks

After a couple of days at Flecknoe sitting out some horrible rainy and windy days we set off for Brauston, it was still cold and rainy but time to move on. On the approach to Brauston by Puddle Banks we were surprised to see the walk way down under the aqueduct all newly fenced off with 'No Entry' signs on them, what a shame as we have always used that route to walk to Wolfhampcote and the old church.  At Braunston Turn we turned right and managed to get moored up just past The Boathouse.  We had a visit from Richard, who has bought a few pens from us which we have posted to him so it was good to meet in person.  On Monday we took a stroll up to the village shop and were amazed at how empty the moorings were, I've never seen it so quiet in Braunston. It soon filled up throughout the day and when I took Dudley for an evening stroll it was completely full again.

Moored in Braunston

Monday morning and very deserted, that's LJ in the distance

Having coffee out Midland Chandlers, great view of Braunston Turn

Braunston to Long Buckby 4.5 miles and 5 locks

Yesterday - yes yesterday - shock horror I am up to date at last, we set off early and up through the five Braunston locks, it was back to normal paddle gear, but boy are the gates heavy! We then went through the long Braunston tunnel meeting three boats in total and made it out the other side. At Norton Junction we continued on and stopped at the top of the Buckby Locks. In the evening we popped over to the New Inn and met up with Dave and Allison, nb Freespirit along with Daughter No 1 Sarah. We all headed back to LJ and finished the evening with coffee and cake.  This morning I took Dudley for a walk along the Leicester Branch whilst James got on with some work dodging the rain showers.

Braunston top lock

Moored near Norton Junction at Long Buckby

TOTALS  372 miles and 372 locks

I asked a local chap...

I asked a local chap...

" Is it far too the closest pub"

" Ah, feck no" he replied through a toothless grin, then he walked off. 

Charming I thought to myself he could have at least told me what direction it was! I'll have to wait until I get a mobile signal and have a look online. 

It is still very chilly here at the moment, -4°c at night and about +4°c in the day with a wind chill of about zero degrees c. The canal was iced over again this morning and before the first hire boat had gone through the canal was topped with a dusting of fresh snow. 

Another chilly start to the day

At a very reasonable time coal boat 'Jules fuels' came chugging by. I just had time to get on the rear deck to flag them down. Due to the extra long cold spell coal was strictly rationed. They have already managed to squeeze an extra four tons of coal from their suppliers a couple of days ago and that was nearly all gone. We took our couple of sacks and topped up with diesel. We seem to be cooking nearly everything on top of our stove at the moment and with our battery bank at a pathetically low capacity (so fully charging from solar by midday at the latest) we haven't needed to run the engine at all to cook/charge batteries. 

Deb's turn to cook today and before our breakfast teapot had got cold we had a herby Spanish chicken and olive casserole slow cooking on top of the stove.  She has even made some steamed sponge for pudding at some stage of the day. We seem to be into a routine of having our meal in the early afternoon and missing out what we used to call lunch, no doubt pud will be about teatime. 

I did a quick paper power audit yesterday just to see how many amps we need per day as a worse case scenario. The idea is to have a battery bank capacity of between three and for times your daily usage. Also once you know the average usage you can calculate how long the daily charging needs to be. From what I've learned so far it looks like you need to put 130% of what you take out back in to take into account charging inefficiencies. My paper calculations look like we use just under 100A per day (or will once we have the 12v fridge in and working. So that will need 130A of charging. If we use just our generator and 40A charger we will need to run it for just over three hours a day. That's why we have pretty dead battery bank at the moment there has been no real charging regime to speak of its all been very ad hoc. I started to transfer my info to a spreadsheet to check my figures but it would also appear that we only need a battery bank of between 320A and 400A so at least buying them will be cheaper.

Deb dragged me away from my spread sheet and onboard power audit calculations for a walk. The cold wind meant we had a bit of a march to warm up and we were soon in the very pretty village of Flecknoe, outside our closest pub the Olive Bush.  You see local chap hadn't said 'ah feck no' but more of an 'at Flecknoe'. 

Feck no, is Flecknoe!

If you happen to see my kids on your travels, send them home

The bar room of the Olive Bush (taken from their website, I didn't break back in to take a photo!)

Anyway it is a great little pub and the hundreds of boaters who are racing through the Warwickshire countryside going to and from Braunston are missing a treat. Great little bar area, just like it used to be, sat inside someone's front room. Great beer. Friendly proprietor and lovely chat with the locals all making us feel very welcome. 

Lunch was nearly ready by the time we got back at three o'clock and very nice it was too, even if it should have been a BBQ outside at this time of year. Pud as promised was eaten sat in front of the fire at about seven o'clock just after sun set. Of course we get an extra hour of light tomorrow as the clocks do their seasonal jiggling about so an extra hour of solar charge :-)