Coombes Field to Braunston

16 miles:   3 locks

There is one thing about the Oxford Canal it is never in a rush to get anywhere.
It was 6:45am as Hallmark silently glided under Bridge 26.
I turned the key and the engine roared into life.
I had a long day ahead.  Just three locks and a tunnel and lots of cruising without locks.
Some 16 miles in total.

Once again the canal and railway run alongside each other they seemed to share the same embankment.
But this is not the original canal route.
There were extensive shortings between 1829 and 1834.
So it's a day of bits of straightened canal.
Entrances and exits from old loops are passed morning and afternoon

Another features of the day was the number of places to purchase diesel and homes of hire fleets.
The first of these come with Rose Narrowboats at Stretton Stop.
No one was to be seen at 7:15 and I had to to push open the small swing bridge to their workshop to get through.

At Newbold along cutting leads to a 250 yard tunnel and I keep Hallmark perfectly straight all the way Maybe the multi-coloured lights helped My first purple and pink tunnel.
Near Rugby the Oxford Canal crossed two rivers. First the Swift and the the Avon.
The shortenings mentioned earlier led to a sequence of aqueducts and long embankments.

Rugby and it's factories and out of town retail parks are mostly hidden by woodland.

Then you find yourself at Hillmorton Locks.
Where there are three duplicated  narrow locks obviously built in the canals heyday to speed boats and their cargo.

It's a good run down to Braunston.
Plenty of bridges carrying motorway and railways.
All are in better condition compared with Bridge 80.

You know you are getting near to the magnetism of Braunston by it's church steeple set high above the canal and the lines and upon lines of moored visiting boats.

At last, Hallmark arrives at Braunston's triangular junction with it's twin Horseley Ironwork towpath bridges. It's the Grand Union and Braunston Tunnel to  the left and to the right the southern Oxford and Napton Junction to the right.
I steer Hallmark to the right and soon after Bridge 95 I pull into Friday's night resting place.