Forty Miles and Eighty Locks

A week on from our escape from Braunston and we now find ourselves moored on the River Avon at Stratford-on-Avon a journey of some 40 plus miles and 80 locks.

Last Friday we slipped out of Braunston early and headed for Calcott, dropping down the three Calcott locks and mooring up for a bit of breakfast before working through a further 10 locks and settling in at Long Itchington.  Here we stayed through Saturday and got the new steps rubbed down and varnished  again and I had a dedicated brass cleaning binge....not to be repeated for several months...at least.
Sunday we left Long Itchington and headed for Warwick and the bottom of the Hatton flight....we never made it... 
Having promised myself that we would stop in Leamington Spa one day rather than dash through I kept my promise and we cautiously moored up.  And what a treat.  Okay, Royal Leamington Spa is not the place it once was but neither is it shabby.  Lovely parks, well kept, Regency terraces everywhere, good shopping, lots of restaurants, cafes, pubs and an added bonus, a Bangla Festival in the Pump Room Gardens, a very colourful and great fun thing to behold.  The performers, dressed in colourful Indian dress, sang and danced non stop...where do they get all that energy?  
We stayed overnight, no problems at all, and the next day we had a visit from my brother and his wife as they returned to Essex from a weekend in the Lake District.
Visitors gone we moved on to Warwick ready for the ascent of the Hatton flight the next day.  We got ourselves a 'lock buddy' in the form of a narrow dutch barge owned by Geoff and Alison.  We took 2.45mins to get to the top, not our best time but not bad overall. We serviced the boat at the summit and moved on to Tom o' the Woods moorings and called it a day.
So yesterday we cruised up the GU to Kingswood Junction and turned on to the Stratford canal and headed south.  Seven miles and 17 locks later we moved overnight at Wootton Wawen.

 Kingswood Junction

 Left, right, left ,right

A Stratford Canal Barrel roofed lock cottage, you can buy one for £320k!

 Management grade supervision

 Wootton Wawen

 

 Having just rolled in this dusty filthy path he is now having a shake...does anyone want a second hand Labrador?

 Yarwood crossing Edstone Aqueduct being photographed by a Grandad and his Grandson and Me

 The Wilmcote flight and my new Brompton

 In action the author about her business

 

Who does all the work?

Nearly there

This morning we fuelled the boat at the Anglo Welsh base at Wootton Wawen, 95p and self declaration accepted, and then off again to cover a further seven miles and yet another 17 locks, and that will be it for the weekend bar a bit of boat shuffling to get a better mooring away from the 'shouty' rowers and their even more shouty coaches, love em.