Stratford Upon Avon Basin

I thought I would just post a picture of how the CRT work flat was moored, no blue string for them.

When we woke up this morning much to our surprise the sun was shining, not what we expected after the Armageddon weather forecast so we thought it was as well to push off as soon as possible, so at quarter to nine we left these peaceful moorings to the firstlock about 250 yards away. When we arrived the top paddle was half up and the bottom fully, CRT were letting down water, not a problem, we would go with it and just reset the lock as was when we leave. We had just locked down when a Volockie arrived to tell us the flight was shut while they let water down so please wait above the next lock. An hour later we were on our way. The CRT man came up on his bike. So much for our early start. He had put notices top and bottom closing the flight but appreciated boats moored in the flight wouldn’t see them. When we were ready to set off there were three boats coming up, and by then a fleet of Volockies had arrived, one an ex boater assisted us by walking down and  opened the top gates for us. I still can’t see why I couldn’t have gone down with the water.
Someone have put these on the offside by lock 43

We Stopped for water  just after the A46 road bridge, there use to be rubbish here, but no longer after that it was down the next few locks getting rained on in a short but heavy shower just below lock 51 but it stopped before we reached the services at the old Valley Cruiser yard, I can’t remember how long ago they moved out but their old diesel pump is still showing £1 lt so not much has changed. After that it was over to the towpath side to moor outside the Premier Inn while Diana visited Lidl, while she was gone I rigged the anchor ready for the river.
Lock 53 bottom gate is a real bugger I suspect the toe of the lock is resting on the cill as the right angle steel frame to pull on doesn’t offer any balance. The volunteer maintained flower boarder is looking fine.

A bit surprising that CRT have not removed these lock name boards as they are not in keeping with the company branding.

 

Once through this lock a couple of bends , under the bridge and we were in Stratford upon Avon basin. Loads of empty slots, even now its not filled up that much. On the land the far side there are so many food stalls that I would thing the local cafés are feeling it, Indian, Italian, Pancakes, all sorts. I think that will do us for lunch tomorrow.

Today’s Journey

2¾ miles 13 locks in 4 hours