Today our next adventure begins! Sadly there were no cooked breakfasts at the marina, but we soon made up for that with some bacon butties once we were under way. Rosemary is with us for the first few days; having 3 people is the magic number for doing locks as we have one to helm and one for each side of the locks.

We’re aiming to do the Avon ring, with a little detour down to Gloucester docks if we feel we’ll have the time (we should have plenty!)

The first locks on our journey are at Buckby, starting at Whilton marina. As we approached we saw someone opening up the gates, so perfect timing and we went up the locks with them. It turned out that he’d just bought the boat from the marina just an hour or so before, and this was his first trip. He had his brother-in-law with him, to help as he had a little more experience and could show him the ropes.

We had a brief stop for lunch at the top of the Buckby flight (sausage rolls and some salad, yummy!) and then headed onward to Braunston Tunnel.

We’d made good progress, so decided to crack on through Braunston locks. We met a lovely couple on Interlock who clearly had bags of experience so we got through those in good time too.

We found a nice mooring spot in Braunston so settled in ready for dinner and a nice hot shower. The forecast’s looking great for tomorrow so looking forward to enjoying the countryside.