Hillmorton

We were joined by our friend Penny and her children Toby, Izzy and Roseanne for the day. We quickly reached the back of the queue for Hillmorton locks. Tenth in line, with only one half of the twinned narrow locks working. The Hillmorton flight consists of pairs of narrow locks in tandem to permit more traffic to pass. Over the winter BW have been repairing half the locks, so capacity on this busy stretch has been halved. After about an hour and a half we reached the head of the queue. Down the locks to the winding hole and then back up again, dropping our guests off by their car at the Old Royal Oak before returning to our mooring near Braunston. It started raining as we turned at the winding hole.

Penny saw me lugging the toilet cassettes along the towpath and said "Now there's a Daddy job!" Must ask Cathy if she's ever emptied a cassette.

Moored at Bridge No 89
Total distance is 13 miles, 7 furlongs and 6 locks.