Left at 08:50
arrived at 12:20
Up to a bright warm day,
didn’t have a bad night at all, no upset tummy and no disturbing the rest of
the crew. I think Derek is looking
forward to some locks today and a bit more sailing. Set off before 9, a couple of boats have been
through already, there are 2 swing bridges and 19 locks or so ahead,
agh!!! A guy had been down to practice
winding, there is a little inlet in front of us, he did really well under
instruction and went by the way he had come quite quickly. We did our first lift bridge, a hydraulically
operated one, it went up really easy, not so easy down, Derek said it should be
the same both ways? I can assure you it
wasn’t, may be I should have had more breakfast. Passing by a permanent mooring spot, a rather
tatty sign advertising Swallow Cruisers, hope the boats look better than the
sign! The house belonging to the boat
yard/chandlery and moorings was very nice, painted white, really clean and tidy
all round it, just passed it was a winding hole with a row of wheelbarrows
propped against the hedge, some labelled with their boats names and other not,
just what a boater needs it seems, a trusty (hopefully not too squeaky)
wheelbarrow to move things from one form of transport to the other?? NB Ragamuffin was on its mooring, it had a
beautiful border of flowers next to the hedge, a little bit of paradise to be
proud off! The Second Bridge was lifted for us, two young boys from a hire boat
were doing it, we passed under and thanked them for their help. Between Locks 4 and 5 (the guillotine we went
through ages ago is No1, boaters logic I think) there was a divine property,
everything was so pretty, well tended and gorgeous to look at, unfortunately I
was out struggling with the locks, so no
photo? At bridge 31 there were properties hidden by a laurel hedge, old brick
patterns on the eaves and metal casing windows could be seen above the hedge,
then through a gap in the bottom of the hedge, a swimming pool, wow or
what!! We started the locks at 9ish and
finished all 19 by 12 15, we then went on to the pump out and did the deed of
the dreaded toilet, then on to find a mooring to wait for Niamh. It had been a
long morning, we got help on the first lock, Volunteer lockie on to get things
started. He set the lock for us, put
Derek in and sent me to set the next lock, the lock was empty as no one had
come up yet, they were worked with ground paddles at either end. One of the top ground paddles was broken so I
could only use one to fill the lock. The
hire boat that had been behind us sent a scout down to me, he hadn’t understood
a word the volunteer had said to him, so came for some info from me. Derek was by now in this lock and I was
letting him through the bottom gates. I
tried to give him the low down on what to do to enable his boat to come down,
then another boat was making its way up, Derek passing him in the pound!!! The lady from that boat came up, I explained
the situation and she said she would take over with the instruction, to now let her boat up
before his boat could come down, poor man, fun and games all round. We proceeded down the first four locks which
have a decent pound between them, then we came to the long line of locks
stretching in front of us, with small pounds and side bywashes between
them. No 6 to No 14, it was getting
busy, the hire boat caught us up and the man said he was enjoying things now as
he had got the hang of it all. Boats
were starting to come up now so we proceeded very nicely, crossing in the
pounds and getting a good system going.
At Bridge 33 there is a canal shop/garden centre and some permanent
moorings, Derek says we will walk back from Kingswood Junction to have a gander
tomorrow whilst waiting for Niamh. There was a single hander waiting to come
up, he started to come out of the lock, I went down to him to hold his rope,
the NB was Mr. Jinks, then a gorgeous border collie got off with a ball in his
mouth and dropped it at my feet, I remembered it was Bailey the dog and man we
met near Stratford, reintroduced myself to him and sent him on his way, as
Derek crossed him in the pound. We stopped at lock No 19 for water and the
beginning of the junction was in front of us.
I was having trouble remembering where we were, so I went to a little
iron bridge beyond the next lock, I got it! it was were we had a pump out
before we set off down to Stratford, the penny dropped.!! Its really pretty on this bit there are side
pounds (reservoirs) on the left hand side cordoned off for fishing and a large
set of pontoons providing permanent moorings.
On the towpath side there is a car park and markers for walkers
etc. An old man and lady, him with his
captains hat, complete with various badges on it, having a picnic, sarnies and
thermos flask of tea, the works. It
looked lovely, we hadn’t had a drink
since we set off, I was really thirsty.
I went inside, put the kettle on, made a cuppa and jam sandwiches, just
what was needed. The hire boat pulled
up behind us to fill up with water and Derek chatted to the Skipper ‘Grandad’,
they had Granny,Mum,2 boys and another couple(the man who had been doing most
of the locks) on board and a black Labrador? So they had a good crew and were
all enjoying themselves, when we left the water point they were having fun with
the hose pipe. There were two locks into
the basin, we did those two, then Derek sailed across the water to do the pump out,
I walked round and over one of the little metal bridges, chatted to a couple
who we had seen on the way and a couple with their 2 border terriers, who were
going through the lock beneath the bridge, to Stratford. The dogs were very comical, brother and
sister, both with neckerchiefs on, blue spotty and red spotty, tied at a jaunty
angle. They were sat on a ledge and the
boy Zak had his legs crossed dangling over the edge of the boat, looking very
relaxed. The man said they were
wonderful little dogs and great fun, unfortunately Zak was going blind but he
said it didn’t stop him getting on and off the boat and enjoying life. It was getting quite sunny by now and his
wife had the umbrella over the dogs to protect what was left of his sight from
the sun, they were truly, well loved. We
finished the pump out and set off through a narrow channel, through the private
moorings, turned right and then Derek reversed into a mooring space between two
NBs. I got Niamhs space ready in the
back of the boat, she had a shelf above her bed and 2 Large shelves in the bed
hole top cupboard, so hopefully plenty of space for all her gear. We had another cuppa and a snack, then there
was a lot of laughing and splashing coming from outside the boat. 2 canoeists were passing by and a day hire
boat, with 4 or more men, a few women and a little girl (who was sat in the
front looking embarrassed and holding on to her captains hat?)they were apologising profusely to the canoeists,
shoving the long pole into the water, stating that it was very shallow there
but having a splashing time. I put my
camera out of the hatch to take their photo, they shouted sorry to me, I said
they had nothing to be sorry about, they hadn’t hurt the canoeists and
certainly wouldn’t hurt us, even if they bumped into us. As they sailed by the
little girl said we have been saying sorry a lot today because we have been
bumping into a lot of things all day!! I had to laugh, and as they sailed by,
saw that they had a wonderful party like spread of food in the cabin, I shouted
I was jealous and hoped they carried on enjoying their day on the water. We have had two families of ducks, one very
stroppy mummy with 4 quite small babies and another with about 10 slightly bigger
ones. Later on the swans we saw when we
were here before came back to visit, with their by now, very large babies, you
can hear nibbling all down the side of
the boat most of the time, we think they get the mossy stuff from the water
line. We have tele so will be watching
the White Queen tonight, goody.
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