Napton

Morning view from our mooring at Wormleighton

 The day started with the best weather we have had so far.  The sun was shining out of a completely blue sky when we set off at 9:55 although the wind was breezy and cold.

Road bridge  for HS2 works, perhaps for the railway as well

The first "sight" was the major works for HS2 which cut across the empty rural hilly landscape. Further on as we cruised towards the first of the downhill locks at Marston Doles the wind became stronger.  By the time we reached there it was sufficiently strong to make it difficult to move the boat away from the side after stopping whilst the locks were prepared.

After the 2 Marston Doles locks a further mile took us to Napton top lock after which we stopped for lunch for the first time this trip.  Eating hot sausage rolls whilst trying to control the boat did not seem a good idea given the conditions.

Moored below Napton bottom lock

After lunch we descended the remaining 5 Napton locks  where we were helped by 2 volunteers   who said that we were only the 3rd boat they had seen all day and were about to go off duty when they saw us approaching..  We moored for the night  below the bottom lock at 2pm.

6.73 miles, 9 locks, 4 hours cruising