To Crick: Day 12

Quite chilly and overcast today, which came as a bit of a shock.  We set off at 8am, with me walking down to the lock while Adrian brought the boat.  A couple of boats had come up yesterday evening, so the locks were full or just needed topping up.  Lapworth is a very pretty flight.

Around the middle of the section where all the locks are close together, we swapped with a boat coming up.  The pounds here are very short, but at least this was a short boat, and one of the straight pounds.

We did the first nine locks in an hour, then went round the corner to the next few.  The next lock was empty and there was a boat about to come up the one below so we waited.  It took about 15 minutes before we could go into the lock, but I had a nice chat with some of the crew of the boat, an Alvechurch hire boat with four couples on board. A volunteer lock keeper had also appeared, and he would a paddle or two.  He also advised that the water point just before the bottom of the flight wasn’t up to much, and the one at the junction was better.  So when we got to the point where there are two locks to choose from, we took the one towards Stratford, which was full, as opposed to the one pointing to the Grand Union, which is the way we were actually heading.

Below that, we stopped on the service point just beyond the cottage.  I wondered out loud whether this meant we could say we’d travelled on the South Stratford Canal this year as well as the North.

Once we had watered up, got washing on, and disposed of rubbish, we reversed off across the basin and went through the Lapworth Link.

Then it was a right at Kingswood Junction onto the GU towards Warwick.  Shrewley Tunnel, which has a horse tunnel alongside which leads up to the road, was very wet inside.

A boat who was coming the other way for some reason decided to wait for us to come through, rather than  passing inside.  We moored up on the piling just before Bridge 55, where it’s a bit more open than the gloomy visitor moorings immediately above Hatton Locks.  It was about 12.15.  Then we walked down the first few locks, as we were meeting Bob and June for lunch at the cafe.  They had with them the Guide Dog puppy they’re looking after for a week, so we sat in the covered outside area — where it turned out to be pretty chilly.  We had a great catch up though, and it was lovely to see them.

Tomorrow we have the Hatton Locks to do.

6 miles, 15 locks.  (80 miles, 73 locks)

Autumn Cruise: Day 23

We donned full wet weather gear before setting off this morning, following a forecast of thunder storms and torrential showers.  As we said to a dog walker who stopped for a chat, we’ll either need it, or putting it all on will prevent the weather from happening.  The latter turned out to be the case.  I walked up to the lift bridge, which took 60 turns to raise but only 40 to lower.

I then walked on to the top lock of the Lapworth flight, which has a nice house next to it.

The first four locks are a bit out on their own.  Between the third and fourth is a house which has been extensively done up.  Even the boat moored outside matches.

After a bit of a gap the locks get much closer together.  Some of them have very awkward turns from one to the next.

A volunteer lock keeper turned up after a while, and wound a paddle of two.  Towards the bottom of the ‘thick’ of the flight, we met a boat coming up.  These pounds are ridiculously short, and have so little space on the towpath side that there’s no room for a boat to wait.  It’s impossible for two reasonable length boats to pass, so Adrian ended up having to go off over the other side of the pound, which in turn makes getting into the lock tricky.

In the lower section of the flight, we swapped with a hire boat, fortunately in a longer pound.  Then below Lock 18 we stopped at the water point, put the washing machine on, and filled the tank.  I walked up to the bins and recycling, and found this little guy sitting on the fence.

For the final lock of the flight we had a choice, with one lock pointing towards Stratford and the other  angled towards the link to the Grand Union.  We took the GU option.

This arrangement means that even when you do the whole of the Stratford Canal as we’ve just done (albeit we did the lower half first) there’s always one lock you don’t do.  By going back onto the link to Kingswood Junction, we completed a big ring — consisting of about two-thirds of the Avon Ring and two-thirds of the Stourport Ring, with a two-thirds of the Droitwich Ring thrown it.  I’m thinking of calling it the Avonwichport Ring.

We turned right at Kingswood Junction, where by now the skies had cleared nicely and the sunshine was quite warm.  Approaching Shrewley Tunnel from this direction you get a much better view of the foot tunnel, which goes up to the High Street.

We moored on a nice piece of piling indicated on the Waterways Routes map, just before Bridge 55 and the somewhat dank cutting which houses the official moorings at the top of the Hatton Flight.  It was lunchtime, so we walked down the road to Hatton World where we had an excellent lunch in the cafe.  It’s the first time we’ve been here, in spite of going past many times.  While we were there, there was thunder and very heavy rain, although it had pretty much stopped by the time we came back.  As we were going up the steps at the Bridge, we waited to see a boat coming along, which turned out to be Debdale, the boat we had a share in for several years — although it now looks completely different, in a new livery.

7 miles, 19 locks.  (236 miles, 235 locks)