Bloggers' Alley

Saturday 30^th September 2017

Stoke Bruerne to before B22 on the Grand Union Canal

12.25 miles, 0 locks

As any boaters reading this will understand it takes longer in the morning when there are extra bodies on the boat, so Monty and I headed off for his morning walk leaving Chris, Sue and Ken to tidy up bedding and get the breakfast (they are well trained boat guests!).  We headed off towards Blisworth tunnel to the Woodland Walk.  If you have never done this I would recommend you give it a go.  It is not a very long walk, but long enough to satisfy Monty.  There is a lot of reading material for me

and woodland for Monty to go squirrel hunting

First you come across this pony and cart made of

wire and wood

 and a bit further along a couple of deer.

More reading

Eventually you can follow a path back to the towpath that comes out by the tunnel mouth

where there is a ring of concrete that is the size of the middle of the tunnel

As I arrived this boat was emerging

and there is yet more reading material.

After breakfast it was time to say farewell to Sue and Ken - thank you both for your help and it was really good to see you again.

As we left there was a procession of greyhounds out for a walk - this is just a small section of them.
I reckon there was between 20 and 30 dogs.

Emerging from the tunnel the autumn colours continue

We stopped at Fred Tarry's for fuel at 69p per litre.  He is a coal merchant - I wonder how many yards like this are left in the UK?

And now to 'Bloggers Alley' - in transit we passed nb Briar Rose, but they were past before I realised who they were!  Adam had left a comment on my previous post to say they were not far from us, but I was so busy having fun with Sue and Ken that I failed to notice, so was not expecting them.  Next time I will try to do better!

Next came the boat that used to belong to Jill and Graham, now in Europe on their Dutch Tjalk, Francoise

Then I stumbled across Gary and Della on Muleless - I had followed the boat build avidly and stopped to say a brief hello.

We moored out in the middle of nowhere before bridge 22 - if we had gone much further we would have been blighted by the very nearby M1.

A lovely peaceful mooring with no overhanging falling leaves - the bane of boaters lives in the autumn.