After a discussion by mobile with Wyvern Shipping (the boat hire company) we decided to cruise up the North Oxford and possibly part of the Ashby Canal - at least this was somewhere that was open, even if not necessarily the most thrilling of canal scenery! At one point we passed - slowly - under a bridge on a tight bend that had clearly taken a few knocks and was in urgent need of maintenance!
The only locks on this stretch for well over twenty miles are the three locks at Hilmorton. They remain as pairs of locks with all pairs fully functioning (unlike many we encountered on the Trent and Mersey). They did, however, have somewhat unusual paddle winding mechanisms with catches guaranteed to give greasy fingers! Shortly after the flight we called at a boatyard to take on more fuel and for a pump out. They confirmed that the latest information was that Braunston remained closed.
We continued through Rugby intent on making it to Hawesbury stop lock for nightfall. However, just after passing through the short Newbold Tunnel we received a message from James at Wyvern telling us that British Waterways had just announced that the tunnel was now re-open. We confirmed that this was the case ourselves and, although it is possible that urgent dredging works tomorrow may cause some delays, we stopped to discuss our options.
As the route ahead was not especially interesting and, to improve our chances of making it back to Leighton Buzzard on Saturday morning, as well as thinking about the stretch for Ellie to do with us on Thursday and Friday, we opted to turn around and head straight back to Braunston. It is unlikely that we will quite reach it tonight but should be able to tackle the locks and the tunnel first thing in the morning. This means that we may well have time to go south of Leighton Buzzard on the last two days! As we passed the boatyard where we had called two hours earlier, their notice now said Tunnel OPEN!
