Market Harborough to Foxton Locks.

Travelled 5.15 miles, worked 1 swing bridge in a time of 1 hour 50 minutes.

The time came to say goodbye to Market Harborough and for us to get underway. We were both so looking forward to getting going, but it did not happen until we visited Tesco to get a few items and Keith wanted to go to the auction house to bid on a piece of Measham, which we came away without, because it went for to much money. Food shop done and goodbyes said to all our friends and customers, we set off at 12.30 pm.

It was a lovely cruise to Foxton with the sun putting in an appearance every now and again.

The colour of the water a muddy brown because of the rain washing the dirt off of the fields and into the canal. This may mean more silting up to an already shallow canal. I made us some lunch on the run, which was so nice. Having been moored up for 2 months, it was so wonderful to feel the wind in my face and the views which even though they have not change in the past 2 months still looked fresh and new. At Foxton Village I worked the swing bridge whilst Keith moved the boat, he picked me up at Black Horse Bridge.

We arrived in Foxton and moored up before the locks swing bridge on the 48 hour moorings. I then gathered all our bedding and put it into the rucksack, we then closed the boat up and walked to the Bridge 61 pub where I did a large bedding wash in their washing machine. For £3.50 it was worth filling their huge machine. Whilst the washing machine did its job, Keith and I had a coffee in Bridge 61 and had a chat with people in the pub, catching up with people we know and others we have never met before, it was all very civilised for a Thursday afternoon. A hour flew by and the wash was complete, so it was time to use their large drier which costs £1.20 for one token which lasts about 10 minutes, it took three tokens to get the washing nice and dry and ready to put back on the bed. I would normally do the wash on the boat, but because I wanted to wash everything in one go, it made sense to pay to use a huge machine, not only that with it all dry, I do not have wet washing all over the boat, which is just as well because we have let the fires out because it is so warm out.

Keith headed back to the boat whilst I dried the washing, so when I got back the TV was on and he was busy on his laptop. Having emptied the rucksack, it was time to sort out dinner and get organised for the evening.

It feels wonderful to be on the move again, I cannot wait to get on to the Grand Union Main Line and head South towards the Thames.