Stoke Bruerne 2: what a lot of water

We came up the Stoke Bruerne locks this morning in the rain: the bottom one on our own; then sharing the next six with an experienced boater and crew for some of them, and first-time hirers for the rest.

These locks, like the Rochdale 9, appear to have no bywashes so any excess water cascades over the bottom gates.

This is the lock under the A508 - Lock 18, I believe.

At the top we tied up in the first available space and had a very relaxing rest of day. Despite it being Thursday, and therefore a good day for eating steak at the Navigation Inn (you get a free bottle of wine with two steaks ordered), we opted for the two meals for a tenner. I had gammon steak - with both egg AND pineapple (hooray!) - and it was very good. So was the ale, Jennings's Sheep Thrills. This was much better, incidentally, than the Cumberland Ale, from the same brewer, which I sampled at the Boat Inn. This was much too cold, and hence fairly tasteless. Jan and I threw a few cheeses at the Northamptonshire Skittles, but we seemed to be the only people in the pub. There were, actually, a few people eating outside. - Yes, it was still just about warm enough at 8 pm.

Tomorrow we will return to Milton Keynes.