Trip to Stratford - week four

16:23 28/05/2011 4.75 miles 10 locks
Found a locking partner whilst walking the dog, a dutch couple exploring our canals (not enough in Holland) with an english couple, so plenty of crew. As it turned out, the start of the bank holiday has brought out the boats and there was plenty of traffic, some being silly and not waiting to share locks, but that is their problem, it takes them more time.A good, but windy trip down to Long Itchington, rain threatened some of the time, but mainly held off.
In the afternoon I studied the map and set off with the dog to find the village shop, which I failed to find last time. Easy once you know the trick, up the old railway cycletrack, and down the lane for a mile, their set in the old village is a modern one stop co-op. Who gave planning permission for that I cannot imagine.


16:29 29/05/2011 day of rest.
We all went to the co-op to collect the paper and explored a bit more of the village, a lot of the houses are name 'old xyz'. As in village shop, post office etc. We did find a working hairdresser!
Very windy today, glad we are moored up, a bit worried watching the canl level here, it is definitely short of water, down by at least 4 inches.


16:24 30/05/2011 3.11 miles 10 locks
Rain, rain glorious rain, just right for a spot of locking!! It hasn't really stopped for long all day, except perversely the twice I've walked Bella. Pity about the last day of the Crick Show, never mind they had two goodish days. We gave up trying to keep dry through the locks and just carried on, steamed
up glasses or not. Crossing the lock gates when it is so wet is not good, slippery and can be dangerous, we had teamed up with another boat and took it in turns to do the nasty bits, apart from that there was a suprising amount of traffic coming the other way which is helpful. We are now sat listening to the rain on the roof, with the Central heating on.


16:14 05/06/2011 11 locks 3 miles and home (but not all in one day)

Sorry no updates recently. Unfortunately one of the crew had an accident in the night falling backwards in to the shower cubicle and injuring her back/arm/leg whatever. Now confined to bed. I did a few of the locks by myself and reached Braunston, when I called in reinforcements and Alison came to the rescue. So Braunston locks were no problem. We stopped for the night at Norton Junction as we usually do, and were within two boats of getting a tree on our roof!
The wind brought a large tree down on to the cratch (front cover) of a very posh boat. The owners were away at the time, a nasty shock when the got back. BW were called out, two men arrived (but with no tools). Went away to fetch a 'saw'. We inocently though 'chain saw', oh no, more like a large hacksaw. But it did the job of cutting away foliage, when it become apparent that the boat had been very lucky, the tree was suspended over them, and with a bit of trimming, it was reversed out from under the tree.

We are now settled in the Marina and working out our next steps, possibly staying here till Mary can walk........


Total distance travelled around 90 miles with 180 locks.