Lyra's Travels

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Thursday 16th August 2012
Although the sky looked fairly threatening this morning we didn't think it would actually rain as we set off for the top of Foxton Locks.
As we travelled along the surroundings changed, herald the coming drop. From open, gently rolling countryside, it quickly changed on one side to a steep drop, and you could see across a valley.
It took us about an hour to get there, and when we arrived we found we were second in the queue to go down.
Checking in with the lock keeper we were told that the wait would be about an hour while 3 boats, which had just started the climb, came up.
I wandered around taking pics while we waited, the museum wasn't open so I didn't get a chance to mooch around in there.
The lock keeper's estimate of about and hour was spot on, and we started down at 9.30.
Foxton is one of wonders of the canal system. Two staircases of 5 locks each. Each lock has 2 paddles, which should be open in sequence. Red first, followed by the normal black one. This is to ensure that the side ponds remain full, but don't overflow.
We finally reached the bottom and turned right, down the arm for Market Harborough. We were expecting a swing bridge on the arm, but not as soon as we turned. It seems like they''ve added one at the junction which isn't yet on our map.
We chugged off towards the end, the only notable thing on the trip was finding some cattle wading in the canal, they were perfectly happy and took no notice of us cruising past.
We've managed to get a mooring right in the basin, with a power hook up and water on our pontoon. We'll spend tomorrow here and do some provisioning.
I know there's a lot of photos of the locks, but they are very picturesque.