Hail to the Hive!

Well you’ve heard of the slow boat to China? Well this is the Slow Narrowboat to Leicester!

Our slow boat Narrowboat Cruise back to Leicestershire continues and even though we are covering sections of the network we have now done several times it feels so fresh and new and like the first time.

We awake just outside the town of Braunston, near Daventry and it’s one of those lovely fresh spring mornings that’s so full of promise it just makes you smile to yourself as you busy about the normal morning chores.

My Usual Morning Chores

Coffee made - check

Oil and water in the engine ok - check

Propeller free of debris- check

Start engine and allow to warm up -check

Untie lines - check

Time to set off….chug chug chug chug. The sound of our fairly new 2 cylinder diesel engine is quite a comforting one, especially after all the woes and breakdowns the old one gave us in our first 3 months aboard Badger the Narrowboat.

Setting off on a morning like this fills me full of optimism. It is hard not to have positive thoughts on a day such as this. Good weather, the suns warmth on your face after a long winter, moving forward into familiar and beautiful countryside, simple pleasures, simply bliss.

I try not to have too much of a set plan each day, as it’s nice to have wiggle room to stop wherever, but I did want to at least get off the Oxford Canal and reach the Leicester arm of the Grand union Canal. So the vague outline is just to drink coffee and daydream and see how we go and how far we get, without rushing or stressing.

It would appear we are cruising at sheep walking pace. That’s an acceptable speed I think, don’t you?

One more We enter the drippy dark wet Braunston Tunnel. We’ve now done this a few times before and with the new, more reliable engine, it’s a little faster and a lot less stress. I used to be listening to every sound the engine made passing through tunnels hoping the old gods and the new would see us through without a breakdown. But not now. I am relaxed and can enjoy the damp dark spooky tunnels for what they are. A hidden world only us boaters see. A secret world.