May 28th - 30th 2008 Napton on the Hill, Rugby
Day Three – Napton On The Hill to Flecknoe via Stockton
Distance travelled = 11 miles
Total distance travelled = 28 miles
Number of Locks = 6
Total number of Locks = 9
Today the weather was rubbish. It rained for pretty much all of the day, often quite hard. We planned to head back towards Napton Junction turning left onto the Grand Union Canal. Then we would keep going till we got to Stockton Locks. At this point we would turn round and head back the way we came before rejoining the Oxford Canal and keeping going a bit till we found a nice place to moor up for the night.
There were a few reasons for this slightly odd sounding plan:-
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We wanted to see the Stockton Locks, which is like a staircase of 13 locks one after the other. We had no intention of going through the locks because that meant we where going the wrong way and would only need to turn round and come back up them again!
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We needed to top up the fresh water tank and there was a suitable place at the Calcutt Locks which was on the way to Stockton.
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We didn't want to leave us too much travelling back to Rugby Wharf on the remaining two days.
Day Four – Flecknoe to Rugby
Distance travelled = 12 miles
Total distance travelled = 40 miles
Number of Locks = 3
Total number of Locks = 12
Our last full day and it was a absolute scorcher! So hot in fact that Leah and Aimee went sun bathing on the roof of the boat.
Today's trip would see us heading back towards Rugby Wharf eventually stopping for the night close enough to only leave us with a short trip in the morning to get the boat back by the required time of 9.30am on Friday.
Leah and Aimee spent most of the day filming the "Chaz and Lou Show". You can watch the World Premier of this amazing show below.
About midday we stopped at Braunston for a bit of a wander but found that there wasn't actually that much there, so after a quick drink in the pub we went back to the boat.
Day Five - Rugby to Rugby Marina
Distance travelled = 1 mile
Total distance travelled = 41 miles
Number of Locks = 0
Total number of Locks = 9
Last day of the holiday and all we had to do was get up and take the boat back to Rugby Wharf. Hardest part of the day was getting back through the narrow channel that goes from the canal to the Wharf.
A bit about our boat
Last time we had a narrowboat holiday we had a much smaller boat (41ft in fact) which was fine and even though it slept 4 people it only had one proper bedroom.
Our boat this time, Elnar, was much bigger at 57ft long and did have 2 proper bedrooms and as a bonus had 2 bathrooms one with a shower. The galley (Nautical Term No. 5 – Kitchen on a boat) was much bigger too.
Elnar also had a door at the front which meant you could get to the pointy end from inside the boat, and not have to walk round on the edge risking falling in to the canal in the process.
