Another nice sunny morning, but it was definitely on the chilly side first thing. Macc enjoyed a walk around the junction before we left, and we also made further use of the Elsan and the rubbish bins. It was almost 9.15 when we slipped away from our mooring towards the junction bridge — and then a right turn onto the Grand Union.
Some boats were moored just beyond the junction, and we particularly liked the one in old British Rail colours.
Very soon after setting off, we stopped again — at the water point at Tom O’The Woods. It’s a nice fast tap, and our half-empty tank was full again in about 20 minutes. There were no goats in the field just beyond the bridge, and judging by the length of the grass there haven’t been any there for a while. We carried on through the cutting at Rowington, and then out onto the Rowington Embankment.
The next major feature was Shrewley Tunnel, which is unusual in that the towpath goes through its own tunnel alongside. It doesn’t go the full length, instead leading to the road which goes across the tunnel.
If you look closely in the photo above, you can see a blue float on the towpath side just before the entrance to the tunnel. It’s attached to what looks like a large log. What it doesn’t tell you is that it’s actually a massive tree trunk which is under the water — so as I aimed for the centre of the tunnel portal, the boat heeled over as we went over it, sending things clattering about inside. The tunnel itself was wet as usual, with all sorts of drips and streams coming from the brick lining. Our intended mooring was a little way above Hatton Locks, on a bit of piling just before Bridge 55. It’s a bit more open here than the top lock moorings, which are in a leafy cutting. The piling was free, so we stopped and moored up.
A hire boat which was a few minutes behind us asked if we were planning on going down the locks, but we have that saved for tomorrow. They’d have been a good boat to share with though, as there were six of them aboard. We walked down to the locks and had lunch at the cafe (very good bacon and Stilton panini) and Macc was pretty good. He ended up sitting on the bench next to me, and had his lunch at the same time, plus the sweetcorn from my salad garnish as I can’t stand the stuff! I did some recordings for a future podcast, and then did more pod stuff when we got back to the boat. It’s been so chilly we have lit the Refleks stove.
4 miles, 0 locks. (34 miles, 69 locks)