Wednesday 9 November 2011

Sunday – ahead of schedule

Sunday was another big lock day – but not quite as bad as Saturday. And a lock-free day to look forward to tomorrow! After an early start we went through the Shrewley tunnel. The girls walked over the top to the village to buy newspapers. They had to walk through the horse tunnel that took the towpath over the top – there was no towpath through the tunnel. In the horse-drawn days, boats would be legged through!

At 9:20 we turned off the Grand Union canal and onto the Stratford. We had another flight of locks, but these were all single width 7 foot ones, so much lighter than the Grand Union. We completed the flight of 19 locks, leaving the top lock (number 2) at noon exactly. Number 1 is the stop lock at the North end of the Stratford – wait till tomorrow! After Lunch, we came to the first of the lift bridges – more winding with the windlass!



The Canal was beautiful here – although no autumn colours yet. Our log says "15:19 Moored in sunshine just before dickens Heath"



Day 3: 9.4 miles, 19 locks

Click on the maps below to see a larger version with the GPS track overlaid. The GPS doesn’t align too well, I’m afraid.

Hatton to Kingswood:



Kingswood to Dickens Heath:



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