Better weather

Tuesday 25^th April; Hatton flight to Offchurch (above Radford Bottom lock).

We awoke to find the rain all gone and brilliant sunshine in a clear blue sky – but again, extremely cold.  We wished we had banked the fire up last night.  I wasn’t surprised to find frost on the cratch when I took Meg out about 7.30.

Brrrr!

We dressed warmly for the last 4 of the Hatton locks, though when I was in the sun I felt over-dressed.  We met 3 boats coming up those locks, but it still took us 45 minutes to get down.  Just time for a cuppa before we reached the Cape locks, and to hastily replace the layers I had shed while working the locks.

First of the four

The Cape locks both needed filling; they were very slow to fill and heavy to operate. 

Cape top lock

Time for another cuppa on the move before we moored at Emscote for a Tesco visit, and we had lunch before setting off again.  As we came through Leamington we wondered if our eyes were deceiving us, before we remembered we were on a wide canal.

It was as wide as they come and from a distance at looked as though it was blocking the canal. They were moored shortly before the cat and mouse artwork.

Just a bit cross-eyed

We pottered on out of Leamington to Radford Semele, where we had planned to stop for the night, but there were already several boats moored, and the weather was so lovely we opted to go on up Radford Bottom lock to the woods, where we hoped it would be quieter.  It was, just one other boat.  I left Dave down the engine hole doing various checks and took Meg off for a walk up the Offchurch Greenway, first making a detour down to the bins with the rubbish.  Annoyingly there was no recycling, so that bag had to come with us on our walk.  Apart from the steps and steep slope to get up to the old railway level, it is easy walking.

It’s popular with dog-walkers and runners, and has good views over the Warwickshire countryside where the trees thin out.  With cowslips and bluebells, and the leaves starting to unfurl on the trees, it was a beautiful spring day.

Bluebells by our mooring

By 5 o’clock there were five boats moored along this stretch, but there is plenty of room and they all moored behind us so we had an uninterrupted view from the bow.

6½ miles, 7 locks