Day 18 and 19 - Braunston to Rugby

Hillmorton has three locks and a rather quirky cafe filled with old photos and models of working boats, with outside two working boats and a vintage car owned by the proprietors.    A picturesque spot for sitting at one of the tables and watching boats go through the locks.

We had a quiet night moored below the water point and set off the following morning - Sunday - for Rugby where Denis was catching the train back to London.

Just after the water point after bridge 58 is a good place to moor in Rugby - there are rings and it's literally next door to a huge retail park with shops including Tesco, Homebase, Maplin, M&S, TKMaxx.  It's also only a 20 minute walk to Rugby railway station, via the towpath to bridge 59 then south by road.

Very heavy rain again, so after saying goodbye to Denis at the station, Jan stayed put - anyway, having to wait for the poste restante at Newbold on Avon a little further on.  On Monday, hoping to moor before the 250 yard Newbold Tunnel with a short walk to the village and post office, but there were no spaces so I went through the tunnel and found an excellent spot opposite the boatyard by Fall's Bridge.  This meant walking back through the tunnel to the village - the towpath is wide enough and there's a handrail, but I was glad it's fairly short!  Apparently, it used to be illuminated with multicoloured lights, but the last bulb expired some years ago.

This time, the poste restante worked a treat and the ballot paper had arrived.  For variety, I walked back to the boat by the road, only about half a mile.

Day 17 - Calcutt Marina to Braunston

Leaving Calcutt Marina, we went up the three Calcutt locks and then turned eastwards at Napton Junction, heading for Braunston.  Boats were heading there from all over for the annual Historic Narrowboat rally and our plan was to go as far as the water point to fill up, then turn round and head north up the Oxford Canal towards Rugby, before Braunston got too crowded.

Turreted bridge near Lower Shuckburgh

Approaching Braunston

Tiny narrowboat

Boats moored at Braunston, with the church behind

Iron bridge at the junction with the northbound Oxford Canal

Braunston church from the canal

Day 16 - Long Itchington to Calcutt Marina

More rain!  Ten locks to ascend on the Stockton flight, so again we took it slowly and steadily - on our own, as no other boats were about.

At last, at the top!

A fresh food kiosk at The Boat Inn, bridge 21 - these are usually well worth buying from, as they have local produce..  but we were too wet and tired to stop

Perhaps a spot of decluttering needed?

Calcutt Marina had a berth for the night at a very reasonable charge of £15 - as well as laundrette facilities.  The 'berth' turned out to be breasted up with some other boats by the pumpout and required a fiddly bit of manoeuvring to turn around and get alongside with help from one of the Calcutt staff.  But it had an electric hookup and was just outside the laundry, so we were happy enough.

Entrance to Calcutt Marina

Day 15 - Leamington Spa to Long Itchington

First thing, Jan caught the train to Birmingham - handily the railway station at Leamington is only 5 minutes' walk from the canal.  Sadly the poste restante hadn't done its thing, but Victoria Square was worth the trip.

Statuary and the Town Hall in Victoria Square, Birmingham

Rainy again, so in the afternoon we planned a short journey to reach the village of Long Itchington by evening, impressed by the number of pubs there - seven.  This involved ascending 3 locks plus a double staircase lock, only the second such we've come across the other being the long staircase flight at Foxton near Leicester.  The paddle order there is important: "red before white, you're all right - white before red, you're dead"!  This staircase turned out to be relatively simple, just needing the upper lock to be filled and then emptied into the lower before starting up.  We went up with Suzy and Gary on Celtic Princess and met up for a drink in The Two Boats Inn later on.

Day 14 - Hatton to Leamington Spa

More rain - and the search began for a jemmy (googling for suppliers revealed only nefarious uses).  We'd planned on stopping in Warwick and taking the train to Stratford for the day, but the rain put us off.  Also, Jan had to go into one of the central Birmingham post offices to pick up a referendum ballot form sent via poste restante, our first time using this.  Otherwise, the main things on our minds were food, drink and keeping dry, so whatever sights Warwick and Leamington had to offer came poor second - or fourth.

Cruising past some quirkily decorated moored boats, we noticed one with an elaborate wrought iron 'SLOW' sign protruding from the boat. The owner, when asked for directions to tool shops, not only offered us his spare jemmy but wouldn't take anything for it until pressed, when he did accept two cans of Old Speckled Hen.  A real gent.

Essential kit

Armed with the jemmy and a pair of elbow length 'pond gloves' from Homebase (a fellow boater's tip), we tackled the weed hatch - the jemmy worked dramatically well and we're now fully acquainted with the layout of propellor and propellor shaft.  Turned out there was nothing wrapped around it this time, so the juddering must this time be due to shallow water in this stretch of canal.

Between bridges 45 and 46 in Leamington is a canalside Tesco Extra store with its own mooring bollards - delight!  Now all we need is a way of washing and drying clothes, a large quantity having accumulated.  We decided on an overnight stay at Calcutt marina, some ten miles ahead beyond more locks at Stockton, for a hook-up and we hoped, drying facilities.

Day 13 - Hatton Locks

The 21 locks at Hatton descend 146 feet to Warwick in an impressive flight.  The forecast was for heavy rain and few boats were about, so we decided to take it slowly 5 locks at a time with breaks in between where we could tie up to bollards in the short pounds between locks. Raising paddles and opening gates on one side only avoided crossing slippery gates.

Sculpture part way down the flight

Creeping slowly out of the lock with one gate open - and boat fenders removed to prevent catching

Floating chandlery between locks - we bought mooring chains and tyres

Colourful lockside foliage

Day 12 - Knowle to Hatton

At Kingswood, the Grand Union Canal runs parallel to the Stratford on Avon Canal, linked by a short stretch of canal, the Lapworth Link.  We moored up and walked through to see the barrel-roofed lock cottage and pretty iron bridge, still with the central gap to allow horse drawn boats to go under without uncoupling horse from boat.

As we headed towards the next flight of locks at Hatton, this boat had obviously been waiting a long time.

The Shrewley Tunnel... or is it The Third Man?

We moored at the top of the 21 locks of the Hatton flight for the night, preparing for an early start and  weather forecast to be torrential rain and thunderstorms.

Day 11 - Catherine de Barnes to Knowle

The judder didn't improve and we still couldn't budge the weed hatch lid, so called River Canal Rescue again - Kerry cleared the prop and advised us a jemmy was the thing, so we resolved to get one asap, without any clear idea where.. Homebase??  Feeling more spritely with the judder gone, we called in at Stephen Goldsbrough Boats for a quote on some internal redesign and then at around 6pm - rather rashly - set off down the Knowle flight of locks.

These turned out to be another assault course - heavy paddles (the mechanism looks like oversized pepper pots set at a crazy angle and are 1930s Ham Baker candlestick design) and long walks around each pound.

Unusual candlestick paddle gear

At the top of the Knowle flight, descending

One of the large pounds between locks

Evening visitor

Day 10 - Cuttle Inn to Catherine de Barnes via Birmingham

We started at 8am, intending to travel down through Birmingham via the easterly Grand Union route then out southeast towards Warwick.  However, a passing couple told us the Garrison locks were closed due to a threatened building collapse, so we'd have to take the longer route through the Aston flight (a total of 23 locks).  That was the first setback - then we found many locks in a poor state of repair, with extremely stiff paddles and heavy gates.  It was a boiling hot day - which combined with the bleak landscape produced an almost dreamlike experience.  When we do the trip again, we'll make sure we knew where to stop overnight in central Birmingham, since it was extremely hard work, we didn't get to actually see much of the city apart from the canal and we didn't make it to the village of Catherine de Barnes until 10pm.

At around 8pm just before the final lock, something chunky completely jammed the prop - it cleared sufficiently for us to go slowly but with a great deal of judder.  

Day 9 - Hopwas to Minworth

Signposts at Fazeley Junction - we came from the left and turned right onto the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal south towards Birmingham

Moored at Fazeley by a fine old canalside building

Just south of Fazeley is this gothic style footbridge at Drayton Bassett

A would be stowaway, he got onto the back deck and seemed reluctant to leave

After lunch at the Dog & Doublet we continued on through the Curdworth flight of 10 locks.  Suddenly, between locks 2 and 3 while waiting for a boat coming down we lost forward momentum and black smoke signalled something wrong.  Realising we'd probably got a snarled propellor, we tried in vain to remove the weed hatch lid but it was sealed tight. Steve from River Canal Rescue hauled out huge clumps of what looked like sheepskin rug and we were back in business.  

A couple on an old workboat suggested the Cuttle Inn by Wiggins Hill Bridge at Minworth as a final stop before Birmingham - there's a good stretch of mooring and we had a quiet night.

Day 8 - Fradley to Hopwas

Another hot day.  Set off from Fradley and stopped at bridge 78 near Whittington, where colourful planting lines the route to the village from the canal.

Moved on south to Hopwas and an evening drink at the Red Lion before mooring for the night nearby.