Chris had a call first thing this morning, so we didn't set off until about 10.30am. We've travelled 6 and a half miles, some of it in lovely sunshine, and we've done 20 locks, but spread out with half a mile or so between quite a few of them, and then a cluster of 4 in the middle and then 10 at the end. Chris has done the lock winding today, and I've done the driving - both activities require concentration, and both have their own rewards. I made some very smooth entrances to locks (and not others!) and Chris did a good job preparing locks ahead on the flight.
The first part of our trip was through quite wooded landscape which looked very green in the sunlight.
Not everyone's journey had been so successful through the area though. We met a CRT man nearby and he said that CRT had been going to move this but 'historical boating' had got involved and so now what has to happen next is ever so much more complex. As we went past the boat, it was clear that there was water coming in and out from some of the doorways or windows which must mean that it is being destroyed as it sits there.
The locks we were going through today, and also all the ones on the Hatton flight had been double locks, but beside each double lock that works is a single lock that no longer works. These single locks were the original ones built around 1799, the double locks added in the late 1920s due to the heavy use of this canal for heavy goods such as coal, stone, and so on. So now the original locks are used as by-wash allowing extra water to flow down the canal and we use the locks created in the 1920s.
We were about to come to a flight of 4 locks, so we stopped for lunch before tackling that and the longer flight that then followed. It was pretty good sitting out on the front deck!!
Then we came to the Bascoat locks, two locks and then a staircase pair where you travel directly from one lock into the next. We acquired a boat to share this with at the double locks - it was a man taking a boat from Warwick to Wilton Marina, close to Weedon Beck, on his own, so he was quite pleased to have some company to go through the locks with. As you can see his boat was tiny. The fact that there are two locks directly together as a staircase means that the flight looks very steep from the bottom.
And quite a long way down when you are in the top lock!
Shortly after the Bascoat locks we came to the Stockton Flight of 10 locks, two to warm you up and then 8 one after the other. It's quite a formidable sight in front of you even though the pitch of these locks is not as great as the Hatton Flight.
As we got to the last lock we passed this structure in the trees. I assume it was a furnace of some sort though exactly what is not clear. It was about 25-30 feet tall I suppose.
So we are now approaching an area we have travelled quite a lot before. We have 3 more locks on this canal before we join the canal at Napton that takes us to Braunston, 6 locks before the tunnel and then 7 after that and a drive of about 9 miles back to Gayton. It's probably about 11 hours of boating, so we should be home sometime on Friday as we had hoped.
Comments
Post a Comment