The first week.

From 2009 Cruise

13:45 23/05/2009 5.02 miles 0 locks !!!
Short easy day - and Bella slept until 6.30, a record. We all shopped in Hockley Heath, I'm told the butcher's was excellent, the BBQ tonight will prove it. We cruised gently through a long winding wooded portion of the canal, seeing little traffic, and only one heron. Once clear of the woods we moored before habitation started, it is really built up from now on with the outskirts of Birmingham rapidly approaching. Well nothing rapidly approaches on the canal. Tommorrow we head off for Gas Street Basin in the heart of Birmingham.

15:47 22/05/2009 4.82 miles 19 locks !!
Wow what a day! And it all started with Bella waking us up at 4am, then throwing things she found around at 5.30. Including my camera, which survived apart from a few toothmarks.
So we set off at 8.30 and headed up to Kingswood Junction where the Grand Union and Stratford canals meet. Basically two canals a few yards apart with a short link section between them. After that the locks started in ernest, and carried on for a total of 19, all narrow, so no helping each other out.
By the end we were bell and truly worn out.
Moored in Hockley Heath now working out whether to do 15 miles to Gas Street Basin tomorrow,or just five. I'll let you know.

16:33 21/05/2009 4.42 miles 17 locks !
So we could not put it off any longer - we had to tackle the rest of Hatton. With the ladies steering and Chris and I winding lock handles endlessly we made it to the top. Lucky with both the weather and the locks, most of them were sitting empty just waiting for us.

From

As seems usual now, the weather deteriorated as we came to moor, and we ended up wet again. This afternoon has been quite good with long patches of warm sun. Washing done and dried, all well with world.

16:54 20/05/2009 5.84 miles 6 locks
The next stretch is very bult up, through Royal Leamington Spa, ideal for a shopping trip, beside local shops we spotted Somerfield,Lidl and eventually stopped at a large Tesco. Lunch in hand we set off to skirt around Warwick and tackle the bottom few locks of the Hatton flight, so fewer to do tomorrow! We managed a nice sit in the sun, beer in hand before the inevitable afternoon storm came and sent us hurrying for shelter.

14:23 19/05/2009 4.58 miles 10 locks
Excellent trip through the next 10 locks - the cook and bottle washer has now mastered wide locks, so I have been relegated to paddle winder! Easy(ish) paddles though, we were even helped through one lock by a member of the grass cutting crew, taking a break from strimming his way from Hatton to Napton and back every three weeks.

From 2009 Cruise

The rain (hail) came just as we moored, but the sun is out now so we may get a few outside jobs done this afternoon.

13:48 18/05/2009 7.9 miles 13 locks
Good fast trip to Wigrams Turn, very windy, but OK if you could keep up speed, nasty when slowing for moored craft.
Straight down Calcutt locks, so pleased with ourselves we decided to do the next 10! Still windy but dry, in fact the sun kept coming out. Decided to do the last two when we were stopped by a BW emergency repair of a lock gate but not for long, pity, as we had just got through the first and in to the second when the heavens opened. Rain so hard you couldn't see. Moored blind, and found there was aPub a few yards away so we are treeting ourselves tonight.

20:07 17/05/2009 6.14 miles 6 locks
Weather not too bad so off early from Norton Junction towards Braunston. BW are doing a lot of work along this stretch of canal rebuilding the bank.
About time too as in all the years we have known it the towpath along here has been in a really bad state with very limited mooring.
The tunnel was fine apart from just before the end when we met a ancient piece of 'tupperware' with no light, thank goodness for my hand lamp which made it easy to investigate the suspicious shadow between me and the tunnel exit.
We noticed that the landslip is the same as ever, half blocking the tunnel exit.
We joined the queue for the locks and were about to set off when the heavens opened, and continued to rain on us down most of the flight.
After a quick pit stop we continued on through Braunston and on south to bridge 100 to be welcomed - in the rain- by our cruising friends Chris and Helen. It was nice to sit down for a cup of tea and a chat.
The weather has bucked up tonight with a bit of blue sky, but the forcast isn't too promising.

20:16 16/05/2009 2.18 miles 7 locks
Off from Crick mid morning leaving the boat show preparations behind us, we hope they hav better weather this year - last year they were nearly blown away.
Watford lock held us up for a couple of hours as we missed the end of a 'convoy' down, and so had to wait for the queue coming up. It then all went quite, and we were the only boat moving.
We moored as usual just above Norton junction.