........................................................................BargePacking(TM)...................................................................
No.23 in the RegPacking(TM) series of hare-brained escapades. Also see No.12 GigPacking(TM), No.17 ShedPacking(TM), No.20 GravePacking(TM) etc etc etc.
Fancied something a bit more interesting for my March BaM than just nipping up to the woods again, but didn't want to go too far either. Andy Roobell7 lives up in Northamptonshire so I dropped him a message wondering if I might pop up to see him at his barge home. He's sometimes away maintaining a Nigerian prince's private plane (sorry if I've got that a bit wrong Andy
), and of course his barge could be more or less anywhere, so it was all a bit hit and miss. Luckily he was "at home" and parked up at Braunston marina, and kindly agreed to meet me on Monday afternoon near Long Buckby which is a just a few stations up the railway from me.I arrived early afternoon and met Andy at the salubrious location of a bridleway bridge over the M1, and from there we enjoyed a nice towpath ride down to Norton Junction where the Leicester, Birmingham and London routes join up.
Turning off the towpath we headed across various fields and tracks to arrive at the Heart Of The Shires Shopping Village. "Shopping village" are words that would usually strike fear into the hearts of brave (married) men. Luckily no females of the species were accompanying us today so we managed to get away with just a coffee and a cake. Three waitresses arrived at our table at the same time which confused things a bit, and I expected to end up with three cups of coffee and three bits of cake. Everything got sorted out and I received the requested cappucino ("lots of chocolate on top please. If you can see the coffee there's not enough chocolate on it") and carrot cake and Andy had coffee and lemon cake.
The "village" bit felt like a sort of strange science-fiction film set, but it did have a shop called Ro[o]bell
Suitably refreshed we headed towards Daventry, with the drizzle settling in gently (rainy drizzle, not lemon drizzle...). I love a good ford, and Andy suggested I tried the one at Dodford. It's one of the rarer type, which enter the water, but follow it for a while before emerging some distance downstream. I was very tempted but glad I didn't because it quickly became over a foot deep with steep sides, and I didn't fancy a new set of wheel bearings again thank you.
We rode past the site of Daventry transmitting station, which broadcast from over 40 masts spread over hundreds of acres. Sadly only one is left now, but the support cable bases are dotted across all the fields. In 1923, the BBC's chief engineer deduced that it would be possible to provide a broadcast service to most of the UK using a single high-power long-wave transmitter located in central England. This 50-acre site on Borough Hill was chosen and T-aerial was suspended between two masts, each 500 feet high. It was also here that "The Daventry Experiment" was demonstrated by Robert Watson Watt & Arnold Wilkins in 1935 who showed that the detection of aircraft by radio means was possible. The government then funded "Radio Direction Finding" before it was named, of course, "RADAR" later in WW2.
A quick tour of various Daventry industrial estates followed, particularly to pick up some bits for Andy's barge at Screwfix. Scenery? Pah, overrated
.
As dusk drew in we headed across the fields to the canal, sampling that well-known "Northamptonshire Gloop" which is a speciality of the area. It's an amusing mixture of glutinous clay and cow slurry, which immediately adheres to every part of your bike and body.
After dropping the bikes off at the barge at Braunston, we headed straight to the pub for a few jars and a nice dinner. Andy offered me the fold-out bed to sleep on, but I took the hardcore option of the barge floor.
While Andy enjoyed his full English for breakfast next morning I thought it was only fair to have my usual porridge if I was counting this as a BaM, so I brewed it up on the foredeck.
With the bikes clamped down to the foredeck we headed off towards Crick where Andy needed to moor up for the next few days. There are three locks at Braunston which are then followed by the mile long Braunston tunnel, so there was plenty to enjoy on the route.
After the tunnel Andy foolishly offered to let me have a "drive" while he spent some time doing his day job in the cabin. Back we went past Norton Junction, to arrive at the interesting Watford flight of locks. These are of a "staircase" design rather than the more common single pound design. One has to be very careful to operate them in the correct way or you risk being marooned half way up with no water left to go either up or down. Quite what you do if that happens would be amusing to find out. Wait for it to rain or call a bloke with a giant crane presumably. Piloting the barge carefully between the first lock and the staircase entrance, I was rather chuffed that the lock keeper told me that it was the best bit of maneouvering he'd seen for a while, although I bet he says that to everyone. Anyway, we emerged at the top with no damage, and proceeded to moor up near Crick.
From there I bade my farewells to Andy and headed back to Long Buckby station and home. It only remains to thank Andy very much for his hospitality and barge-skippering opportunity; I had a fantastic couple of days thanks mate!
.
The rest he had the easy option of steering the boat 
