Hockley Heath

 Today's Canals - Grand Union, Stratford (North)

We awoke to a very pleasant morning and, despite a forecast of grey skies in the afternoon, it stayed good until after we had moored.

Just for once you will get two photos of our overnight mooring, in the morning.

OK so neither of the above shows our boat, so, just to please . . . 

We had about 40 minutes cruising before we reached Kingswood Junction where we turned sharp left onto the Stratford Canal. There are two ways to the northern half of the canal, both less than 100 m. This time we took the right turn just before this bridge which leads into the pool where there are services (not needed on this occasion).

Just above the lock is, as far as we can discover, what is properly called Lapworth Junction. Today there is a small permanent mooring area, with, we think, no other facilities except the general ones and electric and water bollards.

At this lock we were fortunate to meet up with the only volunteer on this flight today - he stayed with us right up to Lock 5 where there is a longer gap before the top four. A former school teacher he works this flight one day a week and very much enjoys the opportunity. From our point of view he is amongst the best that we have come across.

With his assistance we made good progress up the first section of  six locks. We thought that, and there is a short walk to the next set we might lose him if he turned around to restart with another boat, but, no, our luck was in and he continued up the next nine.

This set are slightly different in design and very close together, so much so that they need extra space alongside the lock to act as a reservoir to avoid the levels going up and down too much as boats pass through. At times they are so overgrown that they are not obvious to the casual onlooker.

Eventually, at lock 6 where there is a real gap before the next two, the volunteer left us and went back down with one of the very few boats we saw going down. (There were rather more in the afternoon)

At lock 5 the adjoining house has planted a distinctive row of pyrocanthus plans of several different varieties. They look quite young and, in time, will be even more spectacular as their fruit is in full colour.

At the top lock a couple of cyclists took and interest in the operation and joined in, which proved helpful. However, they had made the mistake of saying at first to Christine, "Why is it always the woman who does the lock and the man always steers?" - with the sharp retort that Mike had been doing the locks and Christine steering for much of the flight, including the tricky bend into lock 8! After that they had no option but to lend a hand!

After completing the flight we moored for a lengthy lunch break. We did not want to go too much further as a visit to Wedges Bakery in the morning is on the agenda, from Bridge 20. So, we pottered along and stopped for the night just after Bridge 24, hopefully away from the busy road alongside the top lock and not too close to the motorway ahead.

We had a couple of manually operated lift bridges to negotiate - the first taking more than twice the number of turns on the hydraulic mechanism than the second.

After we had moored a boat came along - much modified from its original purpose, probably carrying, with a very cheerful family on board. But oh did they leave a trail; behind them that plays into the hands of those who want to abolish diesel engined boats as soon as possible. (Abolishing them is easy, finding an alternative with available technology is rather harder)

5.6 Miles - 19 Locks