Saturday 21st May
Today we got up to …………… yes you’ve guessed it, rain again. However before we were actually ready to leave it had stopped. And as luck would have it just as we were about to cast off a boat, called Lodestar came by and we agreed to share the locks with them.
There are 10 locks in the Stockton flight and they are doubles too so it was handy to have someone to share with. We soon got into a routine and had a real laugh with the chap whose name I didn’t get and his wife Lin? Leah? Anyway it transpired that they are, like us, on their way to Gloucester.
However they will be travelling much faster than us because they are going to Gloucester, out across the Severn Estuary, with a pilot, from Sharpness to Bristol, up the Kennet and Avon to the Thames and back to Weedon on the Grand Union by the end of June!
We finished the 10 locks in 2 hours which was pretty good and Lodestar carried on to Radford to meet someone while we stopped at Cuttle. After having some lunch we walked to Long Itchington for some supplies and we were going to walk back via The Blue Lias but it started raining again so we went straight back to Cuttle and went in The two Boats.
The rest of the day was spent watching first the Scottish Cup Final, the English Cup Final and then the boxing. It continued to rain most of the evening!
Sunday 22nd May
Today has been a much better day weatherwise with only a couple of showers later this afternoon but otherwise lovely and warm and bright.
We have travelled 5 miles and 10 locks today. This took 4 hours with 2 stops, one for water early on and one to empty the loo later. We could have done both later but I got my sanitary stations confused and we had to stop twice.
We started the day with the Bascote Locks, a staircase and 2 further locks. It was apparent that were following someone. It was an Ashby hire boat but they were just far enough in front for them not to notice we were following.
We ended up doing all 10 locks of the day alone but 3 of the last 4 were at least in our favour. We arrived at Radford Semele early afternoon and after mooring went off to The White Lion in the village which I expected to be really busy by this time but it wasn’t. We sat outside and despite a small shower it was very pleasant.
This evening Ken is once more trying to exctract piscean life from the murky depths, thusfar to no avail!
Tomorrow we are heading for Warwick where we hope to moor in the Saltisford Canal Centre for a few days.
