Saturday 11th July

Slept well.

Woke up to find it was drizzling, but still warm. After a sausage (veggie) sandwich for breakfast we headed towards the Hatton Flight at 10:45 am. Met a boat coming down on the first lock, then no one for a while. One bloke was over zealously setting locks for downwards boats which held us. But generally we just plodded on upwards, getting into a groove when we were on our own. It drizzled most of the way up, but as it was also hot, you didn’t get that wet…if that makes any sense.

Reached top in 3 ¼ hours, which was faster than last time. We were rewarded by the view of the Warwick spires as told in the guidebook.

The Shrewley tunnel was as wet as we remembered it, like a shower in parts. Sun broke out and we stopped for lunch just short of Kingswood junction. At Kingswood we were looking forwards to a shower, but they were out of order! Looks like we will be grubby for most of the holiday.

Turning on to the Stratford Canal, it is a charming narrow canal with cute barrel rooved lock houses. Apart from the M40, it felt secluded and rural. We made good progress down the locks, with a few craft coming the other way. We decided to head to Lowsonford for the night, but were caught in a heavy downpour for the last couple of locks.

We ate dinner in the delightful Fleur de Lys pub, which was the original home of the famous Fleur de Lys pies as seen in chippies down south (as opposed to Pukka pies found in chippies up north.) Joan had a mushroom and asparagus pie and Kevin had mushroom and ricotta pancakes – both delicious. Really nice pub, will return here on the way back up. www.fleurdelys-lowsonford.com

Headed back to the boat in heavy-ish rain to write this, but no signal on the broadband stick.