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Thursday 20 February 2014

Napton Folly moorings Thursday 20 February 2014

Not the best of journeys to the boat, we left home at 10 am and decided to go via Norwich to see the state of the A11 at Thetford. That part of the trip wasn’t too bad, lot of speed restrictions and no overtaking but things were going well. After being on the A14 for a bit we thought we would go the reverse route we followed coming home last, so in stead of turning left we carried straight on along the A428, it wasn’t long before the traffic slowed ahead of us, the reason was two lorries carrying what looked like sections of a wind turbine. We followed them all the way the A421 to the junction of the M1, just as I was about to overtake them they took the slip road, so I didn’t even have that satisfaction.  The next thing we know is that there is an accident on the M1 and they are backing up to junction 15a so we leave at junction 15 on the A 508 then due to the warning of holdups in Northampton we take the lanes and go through Blisworth to Towcester, then to Weedon, Daventry and finally Napton. About 4 hours in all.

We loaded the boat at the mouth of Napton Top lock and headed down to moor by the Folly arriving at about 4pm. Part way down the flight we had a shower which ended with a lovely rainbow, one end on Napton Windmill and the other on the hill to the right. By the time I got my camera out it was gone, as was the rain thank goodness.

Once moored I did an oil and filter change which was a few hours overdue, following that I thought I would check the batteries, Naughty boy, the levels were well down and no water on board. We walked back up the flight and got the car then drove to Halfords in Daventry to buy a couple of bottles of water, back to Napton Bottom Lock and topped up the batteries.

Its a lovely evening out there so as soon as I have posted this I will take the car back to the moorings and walk back down the flight to the car.

1 comment:

Halfie said...

You went via Norwich so you could experience the roadworks between Thetford and Barton Mills? We have to do that every time, and we are looking forward to the Elveden Bypass being opened very very much!

Straight on to the A428 then A421 is our standard route - a shame you got held up. It's normally very quick (much better than A14 via Huntingdon).