Saturday 16 Oct 2010 Kilby Bridge

We woke to a lovely sunny morning after yesterday evenings rain, unfortunately it didn't last and we even had a few showers.
We set off at 10 am and met a boat just before Saddington Tunnel which ensured all the locks as far as Newtown Top lock where we started to encounter bottom gate open, but a couple of locks later saw us meet two more boats that put us right as far as Kilby Bridge, here we took on water and moored for a short time while a rain shower passed through, we then continued on through one more lock to moor for the night just below bridge 89.
As we approached Kilby Bridge I noticed the BW notice telling boaters travelling east that they were entering an SSSI and reading it a little more closely I see you are only supposed to moor at designated moorings. I don't recall seeing any notices indicating designated moorings and there definitely are not any where we moored last night at Smeeton Aqueduct or anywhere else we saw boats moored. What we did see was yet another Buzzard getting a very hard time from a couple of Crows, for some time it was just a single one before his mate gave him a hand, I often wonder why such big birds put up with this treatment and don't just turn on their attackers.
I have just visited Natural England's web site and found the SSSI information for the canal,