6th - 8th December 2015. We have a look at Northampton.

It was dry on Sunday so we decided to go and suss out the canal in Northampton. According to our map B&Q car park was near to the Cotton End moorings and the top lock onto the Nene so we set off armed with their postcode. We discovered that Northampton is the town of the car. It has what seems like an endless area of retail units spreading all around the south of the town and the town centre itself (not that we found it) seems surrounded by unidentifiable concrete edifices. It didn't bode well, but we hoped the canal and river might be more attractive. Unfortunately this did not turn out to be the case. The waterways are sandwiched between roads, car parks and retail units on one side and industrial units and neglected social housing flats on the other. It was all a bit sad.

The top lock between the canal and the river. Note the abandoned portapotti in the foreground.

The main bridge into town goes over this sunken wreck and waste ground used by kids with illegal off road motorbikes. 

Northampton was in great contrast to the extremely picturesque villages which surround it. Some towns make a feature of their waterways and welcome them into their urban landscape. And others don't. We decided that when we do go up the 13 locks to Northampton, it will be to dash on through towards the eastern waterways rather than to stop and enjoy the scenery!

On Monday we had a domestic chores day, which started by taking the boat a short distance up the canal to fill with water. We turned round at Weedon Wharf House which looked lovely in the winter sunshine. The railway runs directly behind it and the canal in front. It was originally a coal wharf apparently and must have been quite a sight with horse drawn boats and steam trains coming and going.

 

Since we had our new batteries installed, we have had trouble with the inverter (which changes the 12 volts from the batteries to make it suitable for ordinary plug sockets. This has meant unreliable telly and much head scratching by Robin. New ones are very expensive (of course) which is rather depressing just before Christmas. We have deferred a decision to see if it settles down. The crunch may come if it goes off during the Strictly semi-finals at the weekend!

 

Today Jo is doing some work (or will be when not blogging) and Robin is fishing. We have already needed to manoeuvre the boat across the canal several times to retrieve floats and lines caught in the trees opposite. Although to be fair once was to collect line left by a group of nasty fishermen who objected when we refused permission to fish from our boat. Apart from leaving their line to injure birds and animals, they threw dead fish onto our decks and left rubbish on the towpath when they left. Charming! Fortunately Harold is a long boat and will stretch across a fairly narrow canal with just a bit of faffing about :)