Below Birmingham, we joined the Stratford on Avon Canal, a stretch we’ve travelled before. But what neither of us had never heard before was a cuckoo, there was one very close to a lift bridge. We were surprised at how slowly it did it’s cuck……...oo!! We didn’t actually see it, so looked it up in our bird book, to find it is rather similar to a pigeon.
We stopped at the top of Lapworth flight of 18 locks, as there was a boat ahead of us. These are narrow locks that can only accommodate one narrowboat. The boaters ahead told us there was a problem, the lock wouldn’t fill, and they had informed Canal & River Trust who were sending someone. It turns out the paddle had dropped off its workings. They tied the mechanism up and drained the pound below to allow access into the lock & reconnect the paddle.
It was mid morning when we arrived at top lock and didn’t get going again until after 2pm, by which time there were 3 more boats behind us. I took the opportunity to sit out and do some spinning. Luckily the 4th boat in the queue had a crew of 5, so they helped everyone down in pretty good time.
As we moored on the Grand Union Canal in the rather late evening the heavens opened.
Luckily, we managed to pair up with another narrowboat to descend Hatton flight of 21 double locks. It was a hot day.
I think this is definitely a
mural and not graffiti on a wall in Leamington Spa.
We moored near Flecknoe on the shared Oxford/Grand Union stretch. It’s a very popular route. We do love a boat tally, and 89 boats went past us on a Saturday!! The last time we moored there was December 2022 when we were iced in for 2 weeks and didn’t see another boat at all.
These cygnets had a very polite father, usually the males are quite aggressive towards any other ducks or geese.
The amazing scent of the elderflowers is everywhere. So at Cosgrove, we picked enough for 2 litres of cordial and 20 litres of wine, which is in our fermenting room aka the shower, the airlocks are bubbling away like made mad.
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