Day 1,150
Canals
First of all I must just say thank you so much to everyone who has taken time to send messages of support to Tom and I. This abrupt change of lifestyle and the events of the last few weeks have been incredibly stressful and are taking some adjusting to, but all those wonderful messages really have helped. Thank you.
We are slowly settling into living in Northampton and are keen to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to explore this green and pleasant land we call home. A few days ago we headed out on what proved to be the hottest day of the year so far. Tom's family home in the centre of Northampton is close to the Grand Union Canal. It is the main navigable waterway from London to the Midlands. It splits in two, one arm heading to Leicester, the other Birmingham, and this arm links to Northampton. Before the advent of the railways and motor vehicles this was the main highway for transportation of goods throughout this part of the UK. Despite being modernised into its present form in the early 1920s, being nationalised in 1948, trade slowly declined, and by the 1970s had pretty much ceased. However leisure traffic took over and a fantastic network of walking paths and cycleways besides the canal remain.
So we blew up our tyres and headed out. Wow were we in for a treat. Mile after mile on near deserted paths. We passed by many locks and a fair few barges, on paths that varied from smooth vegetation-free to root covered narrow overgrown sections. We rediscovered that awful sensation of cycling through nettles, our legs and arms were buzzing with that stinging feeling for hours afterwards. We spotted heron diving for fish, birds flew above us and butterflies flitted around us. Much lower numbers than we saw in South America but a joy all the same.
Finally we left the canal, cycled along one of Britain's network of bridleways, old rights of way across private land, then rejoined a fairly quiet road and finally cycle paths beside the River Nene back to Tom's family home. The quiet road is actually the old Roman road, which took us from Nobottle into Northampton. The Romans built roads across the UK for their legions to march along, many of these, now tarmac, formed the basis of Britain's road network. We always know when we are one, as our Roman roads are always a straight line! We passed ancient cottages with thatched roofs lining the streets in small hamlets before we entered the outskirts of this ancient city. It left us excited about exploring more, to seizetheday!
