Braunston and beyond

With summer weather here again, for a couple of days at least, life has seemed pretty good. We had a great time at Mikron last night; if you get a chance to see Beer Street, don't miss it, especially if you like beer, of course. It was performed outside the Admiral Nelson, between the pub and the lock.

This meant that one intriguing aspect was waiting for someone to fall in, which fortunately didn't happen as the bottom gates were leaking so badly, the lock had to be kept empty during the performance. There were loads of people there, some of whom, sadly, clearly had enjoyed rather too much of the subject matter in advance, but they formed more of an irritation than a real nuisance.

Mikron now manages without any subsidy at all, which is quite remarkable for a small theatre group performing in non-theatre venues.

Earlier in the day, we'd seen a two foot grass snake swimming by. We've seen them in rivers before, but this was the first time in an artificial waterway.

One moan about Braunston; why are there no recycling bins? In the end, as we were becoming submerged in the stuff, we've had to dump it all in the waste skip. I know that there are recycling skips in the marina, but those are, quite reasonably, restricted to marina moorers only. The poor souls deserve to get something for all that dosh they hand over to Tim Coghlan ;)

Today, we had a good run to Calcutt. The cut was busy, but not the absolute chaos some have reported. Nonetheless, I can understand the concern about building yet another marina in the area. There have been some changes in the floating trailer park come hippy village that infests the canal on the way from the puddle banks towards Napton. There are still a lot of derelict boats, and scruffs spreading rubbish and junk over the towpath, but some of the offside moorings now have quite tidy allotments attached.

We got diesel and pump out at Calcutt; I managed to reverse Sanity Again onto the service mooring without too much trouble, although the bow fender of one of the moored hire boats has marked the paintwork just above the gunwale, drat. They're always very cheerful at Calcutt, and a pleasure to deal with.

We stopped for the day at lunch time, on the towpath just short of Gibraltar Wharf. Another embuggerance occurred here; whilst sitting out in the well deck, the seat of  my Gelert folding chair suddenly ripped away, allowing me to sink into the frame, whence I had to be rescued by my ever-loving wife. When she'd stopped laughing, that is.

We've had them less than a year, so it's really not very good. My weight is well within the stated SWL of the seat, so it's just poor manufacture, I'm afraid. The tubing was pretty feeble, too, and the other chair is showing the same signs of wear, so we'll be looking for something a bit different next time, methinks.

Tomorrow, we'll head down Stockton. The current plan is to tie in the Saltisford Arm for a few days whilst I'm off the boat. Sheila will be able to visit Warwick at her leisure whilst I'm away.