We got underway before 0930 and nobody passed us before heading off towards the Cape Locks. It had rained most of the night but stopped conveniently by about 0830.
Seagull art just after we left as part of the graffiti trail.
As we were leaving Leamington, passing the station, there was what is a green corridor through the built up area. I wonder if anybody has actually done any research on what animals move from place to place along the canals as I way maybe to access different breeding groups that could be isolated by the loss of habitat. (After reading that back it sounds a bit 'weird' but I'm sure you know what I mean.
We didn't go far before having a quick stop at Lidl for a top up of stuff, and a quick dash to Homebase nearby.
As we crossed the Birmingham to London railway line there was a long line of multicoloured containers going past. It is obvious this is the route used for freight to keep them off the passenger routes as we saw loads of freight heading up the Hatton Incline.
There was somebody moored on the water point and lock landing at the foot of the Cape Locks, and there was a slight delay as a very tired 73 year old came out of the last lock with help from Helen. Our first lock. I hope I look better than he does when we get to the top! I wonder if it is age 73 when you start telling everybody your age when you meet them?
We entered the bottom of the Hatton flight at 1210 and this Fillipina was chatting to her Mum on the phone and basically giving her a blow by blow account of what was going on and filming it all. She lives in Carlisle and travels worldwide with her British husband. I didn't ask what they were doing here mind.
After the first lock I took over on the windlass. Helen was clearly enjoying threading 'Holderness' into the locks with one gate. All the locks on the first half of the flight were empty when we got to them. There was no sign of anybody heading up at all.
We met the occasional boat/boats coming down which worked fine as I could leave gates etc.
By the time we got to half way the locks were pretty full or certainly needed a good empty which slowed us down a bit.
The second half have the locks closer together so I could head up and prepare the locks for Helen before returning and letting her out of the lower lock. There was plenty of water coming down. Two voluntary lock keepers passed on the way back up towards the top and didn't lift a paddle for me at even one lock. I take this to mean that they weren't boat owners as surely they would have done if they had been up and down a flight of locks themselves. Nothing could be seen moving in either direction.
Helen was always ready to have a chat with the many walkers as she rose up the locks. Three or four locks from the top there was a boat sat in a lock. I wondered if they were having a break and would drop down when they saw us coming, or they were waiting for somebody. It turns out that they were waiting for another boat coming down, to share. They asked if I was willing to wait, but as they were not insight I knew it wouldn't be the 10 minutes they claimed. I said they could drop down with the lock and it would be ready for the following boat when I had worked up the lock. They chose to back out and the husband wasn't happy. Not sure why though. It was nearly 40 minuets by the time I could have got in the lock if we had waited!
Nearly there now. We cleared the top lock at 1515, a creditable 3 hours and 5 minutes! We moored up at the water point to top up and Helen went down to the lock cafe for a welcome icecream. I felt like I needed it. I will sleep well tonight I think.
Once full of water we headed off and through Shrewley Tunnel. The drips and more were quite welcome today to cool me off.
The canal seems to be very quiet and I managed to get the bridge photo on a beautiful afternoon.
We moored up between Bridge 60 and 61 and had a bit of a rest before getting on with the chores a bit later. More locks tomorrow to add to our 43 wide locks in three days. I suppose this is fun though, right?
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