IWA National back to Napton

Friday

At 9 30 am we said goodbye to Clive and Rita and head off to Debdale Wharf to fill with diesel, we have always found them to be the cheapest in the area. Opposite the marina is a burnt out steel narrowboat that has suffered quite a fire in the front half, the stern end looks OK still so it could well be worth salvaging. Just behind it was a brand new boat "Oakfield". If you notice that they don't seem to have a licence, don't bother reporting it to BW as BW sent them the licence for another boat. I expect the right one will arrive one day !
Once topped up with diesel we were off, a bit of welly required after reversing out of the marina to miss the moored boats in the wind, but we were soon on the straight and narrow again and soon at the bottom of Foxton Locks. Diana was dispatched to find the lock keeper and we were told to follow the boat that was just going into the bottom chamber, it would have been difficult to time it better. The smell just outside the bottom lock was hard to bear, they were cooking and selling bacon butties. I think if I had been third in the queue I would have succumbed.
A swift run up the flight and onward towards North Kilworth Wharf, this is once again a hive of activity after laying unloved a few years ago, it was also the first place I picked up a decent 3 Mobile 3G signal since we left Leicester, so as Diana drove I sent of two blog reports. We decided against a trip to Welford and continued on to Crick, Its good to see that Water Voles are only liable to be disturbed during the Crick Show and that moored boats don't affect them at other times, in other words the "No Mooring" signs and buoys have been removed. There was a good gap in the moored boats between the two Marina entrances but a fisherman was right in the middle, we pushed on to Edwards's and found all the moorings full, so had to back up all the way to the lone fisherman who was just packing up as we arrived, backwards. One of the reasons for making for Crick was to eat in the Red Lion, it was absolutely packed out and we waited well over an hour to get a table for two. The beer was constantly changing as the barrels ran out and different ones were put on. We wandered back to the boat in bright Moon light and Mars very visible not far from it. Interestingly I had a chap try to convince me that what I thought was the moon was actually Mars as its the closest to the earth and largest its been for many thousands of years. He did succeed with some of the drinkers he enticed out to look at it at Kegworth