Beating the closures

Tuesday 19^th August; Welsh Road locks to the Cape of Good Hope

We set off in warm dry weather, on our own at the first lock of the day.  Welsh Road lock has the old single lock alongside, now operating as a bywash and an undisturbed spot for spiders to sling their webs across the gap.

I took over the steering once we were down so Dave could walk Jess.  The HS2 works were continuing between Welsh Road and Woods locks, the landscape despoiled, which I hate to see, but I was concentrating on steering so I hardly looked.

At least the brandy-bottle yellow water-lilies are in the picture

At Woods lock I was pleased to see open gates and a waiting boat – though it took a little while for them to get to one side, and then it took me a little while to creep in beside them – the first time I have entered an occupied lock and I might add I did it perfectly, if rather slowly.  It was the Kate boat which had passed us yesterday, a family having a great time on their first holiday afloat – only the mum had ever worked a lock before.  We thought they made excellent locking companions, with the dad teaching the younger son how to steer (dad’s first day two days before!) and the older son a willing crew member.  They had picked the boat up from Stockton Top, but as that will be isolated by lock closures from 3pm on Monday they had been asked to leave the boat at Warwick.  Kate Boats moved away from their Warwick base in 2022 to avoid disruption from the building of a small housing estate around their old base, expecting to be away for at least 18 months.  Perhaps they will be back for keeps now.

I walked between the three Fosse locks to keep my steps up.  At the locks we met two boats who were going up the flight, and caught up with two single-handers going down like us.  All but one were moving to beat the closures – one moors at Langley Mill at the end of the Erewash - they were interested to hear Irene's (NB Free Spirit)  progress after her knee op - and had to get to the Trent and Mersey canal as their only viable route back.  They had to get beyond Calcutt and Hillmorton locks and then the Atherstone flight before 3 pm on Monday when everything closes.  We just needed to get through Radford Bottom lock, which we did late morning.  We let the Kate boat go ahead as we were wanting to stop for lunch.  We have never fancied stopping at the Fusilier pub on the outskirts of Leamington, though you can easily moor outside.

The Fusilier has sunflowers growing from the cracks in paving.  I bet they feed the birds there in the winter - the plant on the left looks like maize. 

We decided to move on to find somewhere else, and moored just before the college buildings with the well-known cat painted on the wall..

We hadn’t seen this one before

Some of the graffiti round here is odd – one bridge has a pencil (with eraser on the end) and a frankfurter, sliced in two.  We prefer boat art to this odd stuff.

We moored on the offside moorings at Emscote Road bridge no. 46 for a Tesco shop, then crossed the Avon, passed the old/new Kate Boats base and began the approach to Cape locks.  We had read of the new piling that is going in below the locks – it looks as though there will be 100 yards of decent mooring below the locks.  It’s still fenced off, as the dredgings used for backfill need time to settle.  It also needs a bit of rain to help it, as it was all dried into cracks.

  You can see where the original concrete edge has been cut to accommodate the long retaining bolts for the piling.

We were pleased to find plenty of spaces above the locks – it was very hot and we were tired.  There is towpath mooring closer to the Hatton flight or along the Saltisford arm but it is all very noisy and close to roads, and you need to go up the first four of the Hatton flight for somewhere quieter.  Not today!  although we were to wish we had  ....

7 miles, 8 locks, Avon aqueduct