To Crick: Day 13

A funny thing happened just as we were getting ready to set off.  I was trying to take a side fender up, when a man walking along the towpath checked I was who he thought I was.  It was Richard Parry, the chief exec of CRT, on his way to a meeting at Hatton.  We had a chat about various things before he continued along the towpath.  I followed a couple of minutes later with a windlass, while Adrian brought the boat.  I had set the top lock by the time he arrived.

The second lock was full with a gate open, but the next two were empty.  

As I filled the fourth lock a volunteer lockie on a bike turned up, and offered to go down and set ahead for us — which is the sort of offer that makes a huge difference.  We were soon going past the CRT building, and then into the thick of the flight, with the tower of Warwick church in the distance.

The volunteer kept a couple of locks ahead, and was later joined by another.  Then, more than half way down, we swapped with a boat going up.  The lockie with the bike joined them on the way up, while the other one, who’s based at the bottom of the flight, continued to set ahead for us.  I asked him if he’d thought about getting a bike too, and he said the other guy used to be an RAF pilot so needed a mechanism for everything, while he’d been in the infantry!  They’ve worked on the flight together for nine years.  The bottom half of the flight has the locks much further apart, so having them set makes even more of a difference.  

We were soon at the bottom, and had done all 21 big locks in two and a half hours — which we thought was pretty good going.  We continued round the corner to the Cape moorings, where you often wonder if you’ll get a space.  Today, there was just one boat immediately beyond the bridge, but the rest of the length was completely empty.  We chose a sunny spot, with a bit of grass beside the boat rather than concrete.  It was only a little past 11 o’clock.

After lunch we decided we’d have a walk into Warwick, as it’s a long time since we’ve been to the town.  We had a good look around at some of the buildings, including the Lord Leycester Hospital.

The Market Place was full of people enjoying a drink in the sunshine.

At St Mary’s Church, we paid £5 to go up the tower, for great views in all directions, including across Leamington, towards the Cotswolds, and of course Warwick Castle.  Having paid, they take you out to the porch and unlock a secret door where the stairs start.

We spent quite a lot of time trying to work out where Hatton Locks were, and we might have identified the general area!  The 160 steep spiral stairs seemed worse on the way down than the way up.

We walked a slightly different route back to the boat.  Another couple of boats have joined us on the moorings, but it’s still very quiet.

3 miles, 21 locks.  (83 miles, 94 locks)