Braunston Bound - Making a Start

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)

For us plans are often never written in stone, and the exercise to move "Sickle" from Stoke Bruerne to Braunston was an example of our "fluid" approach to these things.  It had been anticipated I would travel up in the week, and start the move, particularly as I desperately still wanted to be at a reunion of old school friends on the Saturday evening, (we have these only about every 10 years).

Picturesque Stoke Bruerne, (yes, we are facing the wrong way!)

But we realised with lock restrictions now lifted, we could set off on the Friday evening, get a few miles in, and then complete the trip to Braunston on Saturday, in time for me to be home for that evening.

A good revised plan, but it involved taking two cars to Braunston, leaving one there, before travelling back to Stoke Bruerne.  In practice we did not start uintil nearly 8:00 pm.  A further complication was that you can't easily leave a car at Stoke Bruerne - there simply is no suitable parking in that small village.  So I set off alone through Blisworth tunnel, (I'm getting quite used to that!), whilst Cath moved the car up to somewhere "parkable" ready for me to pick her up.

Poor attempt at photographing some great skies.

The weather forecast for Saturday looked pretty dire, but what boating we had on Friday evening was done during a fine end to the day, with some spectacular red skies, that my automatic "point and shoot" cameras really refuse to show in any of their splendid glory,  (We are resolved to get a better camera, with more ability to set exposures and apertures manually).

It really was getting dark long before we reached our planned stop at Bugbrooke.  About a mile short, we decided we had done enough, and moored up in failing light, in a pleasant but remote location, having eventually found a spot where we could at least get the deep draughted "Sickle" somewhere near the bank.

Stoke Bruerne to about 1 mile from Bugbrooke
Miles: 6.5, Locks: 0