Hedgerow Jottings: A Good Pairing

Entrance to Shrewley Tunnel and the Horse Tunnel

Morning Jotters

There's been a whole lot of lockin' going on this week!!

Monday morning was sunny and bright and we were only planning a short cruise to a spot we remembered from our last trip this way. No locks today – Hurrah! I wanted a day off to be fresh for the Hatton Flight on Tuesday. We met the fuel boat, Roach, as we came through the first bridge and flagged him down to get our fuel tank topped up. He squeezed exactly 100 litres in - 'So much easier to work out the bill' he said. The preferred mooring spot was empty when we arrived – happy days! We like this spot because it's very rural and open and catches the sun all day. There was a nice breeze blowing too so we popped up the whirligig and my towels were flapped away nicely. I took a chair and my book out onto the tow-path but was distracted by a family of ducks who popped up onto the bank, begging for scraps. They don’t know that bread is bad for them and will gobble it up if they can but, luckily for them, we ran out of bread yesterday, so the cupboard was bare. Tricky flopped down by my chair, snoring loudly, completely ignoring the duck family and all was peaceful in the morning sun. Swallows dipped and swooped over the water and a family of buzzards soared and wheeled in the sky. The canal is wide here and, occasionally, a boat passed us by but, for once, no-one moored by us and we're glad to be alone for once. It was such a nice afternoon so we decided to walk to the tunnel in Shrewley and have a look at The Horse Tunnel which is set into the hillside, next to the Boating tunnel. We had heard tales of Boggarts inhabiting the dark depths which was originally built so that the towing horses could be led over the top of the tunnel, while their boat was 'legged' through. Today it takes pedestrians from the tow-path up into the village of Shrewley. It is very dark and dank in the middle - Tricky came to a complete standstill and refused to move, Carl had to carry her up the last bit, then we had to fight our way along an overgrown pathway to reach the road and civilisation. Civilisation was out, so we went home.

Is that a Boggart?

We arrived at Hatton quite early on Tuesday, hoping to find other boats waiting to go down. The locks have been nicknamed ‘The Stairway To Heaven’ by the working boatmen of old, something to do with it being on the way to the wages office. The canal descends for almost two miles, through 21 broad locks, taking boats into Warwick- it looks spectacular and a little daunting from the top. I was relieved when we paired up with another boat called ‘Chatterbox’ at the top lock, Andy was at the helm and he had a happy team of 3 assisting him. Carl and Andy were soon chatting away and they paired the boats together and chugged between the locks, they looked almost professional! The Hatton Vounteers were working ahead of us, filling the locks and opening gates as we emptied the one above and closed the gates again. We must have broken the record for descending the flight - Carl clocked us at 2hrs 35 minutes, but even with all that help, I was still very pleased to find a space outside the Cape Of Good Hope and settled down for an afternoon nap.

Paired up for the journey

The next morning was fine and sunny and we walked into Warwick for supplies. The outdoor market was on in the square and we collected sour dough rolls and a fresh brown loaf from the bread stall. We sat outside a cafe with our coffee and watched the world go by then wandered home along a street filled with hanging baskets and pots of summer flowers. Only two locks for me today, I soon got those done and we pootled off towards our next mooring in Radford Semele.

Almost there

We had a quick bus trip into Leamington on Thursday to collect my prescription – the system seems to be working well, thank goodness, a great improvement from the old days when I had to register with a local doctor to get my tablets. Some of those receptionists were really very disapproving when I mentioned that I was passing through on a boat. The forecast for the afternoon was for rain and we cast off under lowering skies with our waterproofs at the ready. We wanted to get to Long Itchington to meet up with our friends and more importantly, to put some charge in the batteries. Our luck was out today - a pair of boats came through the bridge just as we were preparing to set off and they beat us to the locks. By the time we got there, the first drops of rain were falling and we resigned ourselves to a wet afternoon. We managed 4 locks before the heavy rain started and we had to call it a day. Carl hammered in the mooring pins as the rain beat down on us and we were soon tucked up with steaming mugs of tea and another episode of 'The Detectorists'

Posing in Warwick

We had a couple of days in Long Itchington - we chose this as a good place to meet up with our friends, Richard and Mel. The village boasts 5 pubs and we selected The Duck on the Pond to have a long, leisurely lunch and as always, we loved having them aboard. We'll be seeing more of them I hope as we get closer to Market Harborough. Our boating buddies are close by and as I type this we are waiting for the Naga Queen to hove over the horizon and moor along the tow-path from us. Tricky will be happy. More visitors from our winter quarters are arriving on Tuesday – I hope they bring the sun with them.

Warwick in Bloom

This morning we set off early, there were 13 locks between us and Wigram’s Turn and we were hoping to get them done today before the main rain started. We did a couple of locks by ourselves then we were joined by a Black Prince boat. They set off yesterday and had gone the wrong way and got through 8 of the 10 locks before they realised their mistake. They were just setting off back up the Stockton flight when we came along and they asked if they could share the locks with us. We were very happy to see them as they had two brawny, teenage sons and I hardly had to lift a paddle for the rest of the morning. The boys were very enthusiastic and were running around the locks, opening gates and winding up paddles and having a whale of a time. I walked ahead and set each lock ready for them and we were making easy work of the big locks, until we ran out of water! Canal and River Trust were already aware of the problem and had sent someone to run water down the flight to fix the problem. We had to sit and wait until there was enough depth to get the boats from one lock to the next then we were off again, like greased lightening.

Long Itchington

This stretch of canal, from Braunston to Wigram’s Turn, is very rural and it's a nice change to be lock free for a while. This week we will be pottering about around Braunston, trying once more to order a new canopy for the bows. The wet, warm weather has turned our old one green with mildew and it does look very shabby. I’m hopeful that the weather will improve as the week progresses - we don’t mind a drop of rain, but this wind makes us grouchy. I hope you have a good week and I’ll write again soon

Love from

The Floating Chandlers

Ps I don't normally hang around in the bin area but I couldn't help noticing a selection of items that looked as if they had been dumped by a builder. 2 good ladders, yard brushes, gloves and boots, electric tools in cases and boxes of screws. I'm still wondering who would just throw that stuff away!