Stoke Bruerne to Anchor Cottage, Buckby Flight.

Hi Friends.

It was a beautiful morning as I stepped off of the boat with Paddy. When we are at Stoke Bruerne, we love to walk up through the woodland. This means Paddy can have a run off of the lead and I can watch him and watch the wildlife. This morning I watched Rabbits playing in the field and a Kestral flying over looking for breakfast. We then walked back down on to the towpath near the tunnel and were greeted by this Orange fencing, which can only mean one thing. Something is a miss.
In this case the Orange fencing was put around a rather large hole which has appeared.It certainly was not there when we came down a couple of months ago. What is worrying is the fact that this hole could easily get much bigger, so I am surprised that nothing is being done about it. A bit of Orange fencing is not going to stop an accident happening. Back on the boat, we prepared for the off and Mog and Dog went to bed. Every now and again they will actually sleep in the same bed. We had a lovely morning cruise, in warm sunshine and so wind. When we arrived at Bugbrooke, I had to giggle at this sign.One of the most common problems when cruising is getting rubbish on the propeller, and today was our day for this to happen. Earlier on we had allowed a hire boat from Rose Narrowboats to pass us. After all they are on their holiday's and we are in no hurry. No sooner we let them by, they got into difficulty in a bridge 'ole and to get out of the problem they speeded the boat up, kicking up water and mud in the bridge 'ole, this did not bode well for us, because as we went through the same bridge 'ole behind them, we picked up something on the prop, which made the boat shake from stern to bow. We could not get into the bank to sort the problem, so limped on to the next bridge, where we finally got in. Keith had to life the weed hatch to find the cause, which was a fleece arghhhhhh. I know we are a throw away society but please do not throw your things in the canal.We arrived at the bottom of the Buckby Flight and there was plenty of water coming over the top of the gates. Luckily for us nb Salamander with Jan and Keith onboard, were waiting to go up the flight, so we joined forces and set off up the locks. Jan found the gates difficult to move, so not only was I doing my gate, I was nipping round and helping her with her's as well, but it is all part of the fun when sharing locks. We were fortunate that there were boats coming down the flight as well, so most of the locks were ready for us to enter. it was our lucky day. We really did enjoy sharing with Jan and Keith and hope we meet up with them again.
Our cruise came to an end above the lock at Anchor Cottage, which houses a shop, selling Canal Ware, Ribbon and Lace Plates and all things boating. It is easy to spend a while browsing through Anchor Cottage Crafts. It also sells Ice Cream, so I treated us both to a Mint Choc Cornetto. The perfect end to the perfect day.
The only draw back to our mooring so far is the fact that the pound is not very big, so we keep listing, with the boats going up and down the locks. I am ever hopeful that no sooner boats stop moving, we will be back on the level, for a much needed nights sleep.