Well the rain started just as we moored up yesterday and it was still raining when we went to bed, it was fine when we got up this morning but it didn’t look like it would stay that way.
It was only a short run today setting off at 10 am and mooring up about half an hour before it started tipping it down again.
I boat had already come by going up the canal but even so the locks had all leaked off, this even happened after meeting other boats so all needed water adding before we could open them, It wasn’t long before we crossed our first aqueduct on this canal, just before Bucket Lock.
I couldn’t quite touch the telegraph cables that you can see crossing the canal in the foreground, the posts are in the land adjacent to the embankment.
CRT have some very visible markers along this canal to show the location of overflows, culverts etc.
These young cattle looked out inquisitively as we passed them on the off side and I was lucky enough to spot a Kingfisher, the first I have seen for months, but no chance of a photo as it was away before we got there. The bridges along here don’t have towpaths through them, the horse had to cross the track that ran over the bridge and then carry on on the other side of it, to remove the need to uncouple the boat from the tow line the bridges were made with a gap in the centre of the deck. On this particular bridge you can see the boat the other side has not chosen the best place to moor as the canal swings away to the left, we cleared it OK but a full length boat would have needed to get much closer to them and it they were towing a butty I think paint would get lost.
Our target for tonight was Wootton Wawen and we have moored between bridges 52 and 53, not on the 24 hour visitor mooring.
3¼ miles, 6 locks in 2¼ hours