The Great Unknown

On Friday afternoon I finally decided to venture out into the G.U. Distinctly grotty weather meant painting was out, so no longer had any excuse and I duly set off across Braunston to tackle the flight of locks up to the tunnel, my first attempt at doing broad locks.

The weather seemed to have deterred most of the remaining boaters so I had to do the whole flight pretty much on my own, the only exception being a young lad of about ten or twelve hanging around the bottom lock. Everything seemed to go smoothly enough - open gate, boat into lock, shut gate etc., all without hitting anything or otherwise messing up. The young lad even said he’d close the top gate behind me. Perfect! Well, almost – the last thing I heard as I pulled out of the lock was the kid shouting after me “You’re RUBBISH!”

Eventually, the weather got so bad that I had to stop for the night before legging it (no, not literally, silly!) through the tunnel and on towards Buckby locks.


Braunston Tunnel - it'll look nice when they get the carpet fitted

On my arrival at Buckby Top Lock, I was reassured to find that some things on the Great Unknown are exactly as they are elsewhere. This boat, for example, was pointing north:

Then again, some other things appear slightly different:



There was even a BW work boat that didn’t look as if it had been built out of Lego:



It’s now Monday and I’m parked outside Whilton Marina – always a good place to nick fitout ideas. But the impression I got of Buckby Top Lock is that its primary purpose is as a practical joke for the amusement of the regulars at the nearby Sadist’s Arms. Going down was fine, but getting back up looks distinctly trickier. I think I might just have condemned myself to boating south of Long Buckby from now on, at least until I can learn not to be rubbish...