We left our peaceful mooring near Shuckborough this morning passing Monarch 156 and made our way on to Braunston where we visited Midland Chandlers for some polish for the boat, topped up with water and disposed of some rubbish. This is where I found some discarded cupboard doors which I ‘rescued’ for a project which I’ll tell you about later, if it’s successful!
Braunston water point is in an awkward position, just off of the junction so we didn’t hang about but pressed on to Hillmorton Locks which are in pairs (originally to ease congestion because of the volume of traffic there). At the top lock a brisk wind made it difficult for Joy to hang onto the boat while I made the lock ready, but once we were down we swapped to the left hand lock as it was more sheltered. We swapped again at the bottom lock where the volunteer lock keepers were just returning from lunch and one of them helped us through whilst the other prepared the other lock for an elderly gent who was single handing his small boat through.
Before we left Dusty had topped us up with diesel, but just after he left we ran out of gas so we needed to change our spare gas bottle so we stopped at Clifton Cruisers where we purchased a refill. Their reception incorporates the Bridge 66 cafe which we would have patronised if we hadn’t just eaten sausage rolls for lunch.
Model railway buffs may be interested to know that they have a G gauge railway layout running around the rafters. “G scale is essentially the modelling of narrow gauge railways on track 45mm wide, representing, in the scale of 1:22.5, continental metre gauge.”
On again to Rugby where we stopped on the visitor moorings while we visited the nearby Tescos, we might have stopped at the nearby Harvester but they don’t seem to welcome boaters, despite having space for a mooring it was all fenced off and bramble infested, so went on to end today’s journey at Newbold on Avon where we had an excellent meal at the almost-canalside Barley Mow.
Eleven miles and just 3 locks, my don’t we fly along.