James ends up in the canal at Crick!

We awoke to a very still and quiet morning after a eerily quiet and wonderful night in our ‘middle of nowhere’ mooring at bridge 51. 

Mirror calm waters make for a lovely setting.

Further up the canal the locals were down having their morning ritual.

The approach to the Husband’s Bosworth tunnel (another great British place name!) was beautiful in its autumn colours and misty atmosphere.

Some of the Grand Union Canal is not so grand these days -  it feels more like a backwater which we’ve mistakenly taken.  There really needs some urgent cutting back in places.

Our 15 mile lockless journey today was dry and mild until the last couple of miles when the forecast rain arrived and we reached our Crick mooring encased in waterproofs and glad to get inside the boat.  After some lunch we walked into Crick village………

………. where there are some lovely old buildings, especially this perfectly presented one just round the corner from The Wheatsheaf.

The same well cared for building from a different angle.

Getting back to the canal we went to find  nb ‘Ellen’, moored in the marina, with John and Angela (and Lola) on board.  We were given the most wonderful welcome and we spent a much enjoyed hour or so with them.  Lola is recovering from the operation to put right her broken leg but, at only nine months old, she still wants to bounce around regardless of the restrictions placed on her!  She’s a lovely dog and we hope she heals quickly so that John and Ange can get back to some sort of normality.  It was great to catch up this year – we didn’t think it was going to happen.

While at the marina we bumped into Frank and Jenny on nb ‘The Lady C’ who we met while tideway cruising earlier this year. (Small world!)

This evening we spent our last evening with Birgit, before she leaves us tomorrow, having a very nice meal at The Red Lion. After that we walked back to ‘Chance’ where Doug decided to drop his phone into the canal  between the boat and the armco.  James had to strip to his underpants and use his long legs to fish for the blessed thing!  Not the perfect end to the day but it had the desired result and its now drying out by the fire.  (The phone that is not James!)