Warblers at the staircase

Saturday 25^th April; Offchurch to Long Itchington railway bridge

It’s still chilly in the early morning but as we weren’t starting till 10 I gambled it would soon get warm and dispensed with the thermals.

May blossom at our last night’s mooring

We were soon at the first of the three Fosse locks, and although the gates are very heavy the paddle gear is ok and we met a couple of boats on their way down.

One of the Fosse locks, the top one I think

Wood lock and then Welsh Road lock would be next, and between the two a new HS2 viaduct was lifted into place a few weeks ago.

Longhole bridge, what a lovely rural scene.  But what’s that pale strip along the top of the brick parapet?

Longhole viaduct, that’s what.

From the other side it almost looks as though it had been there for years, as the trees hide the scarring of the landscape.

At Welsh Road lock the traffic light associated with the HS2 works is still in place alongside the cottage.  The people there have had years of disruption and noise from the works.  I wonder if they will get even a penny of compensation?

The red light is below the leafless oak tree

We had a bit of luck at Bascote, as the first lock was already empty and a boat was just coming into the next.  With no other boats about that meant the staircase would be ready for us to go straight in, though I would still have to fill the top lock – once for water to move between the two parts of the staircase, and again to raise us to the level of the canal above.

One of the paddles was out at the staircase, but I was only operating one side of the lock so that didn’t affect us.  From a distance it looked as though someone was working the lock.

As I worked us up the staircase I could hear the loud sudden song of a Cetti’s warbler on the offside, though I couldn’t see the bird itself.  I checked with the Merlin app which also identified a whitethroat. We moored in a sunny spot half a mile before the road bridge at Long Itchington for a late lunch.  During the afternoon we got on with some jobs.  We have had a sack of coal sitting in the well deck for several days, and the locker where we keep the fuel for the fire was in a terrible mess, so sorting that out was my job.

I hope it will all fit back again

I put half the coal into the sack we had just finished – half sacks stash neatly in the locker and are rather lighter for refilling the coal scuttle – and rationalised the five bags of kindling and logs into three.  It all fitted back rather nicely and now the piling hooks, chain and mooring pins can lie on top rather than slipping down to lurk under bags of firewood.  

The first part of the railway walk

A bit later we went for a walk along the disused railway and took the first lane which led down to the village.  As you can see it was t-shirt and shorts weather!

Long Itchington in the sunshine

The plan had been to take the footpath near the church which comes out on the towpath at the road bridge but we couldn’t find it!  So we ended up coming back along the main road, which was a bit longer to walk.  But at least we found the birthplace of our boat.

Colecraft HQ

Our knees were complaining and we were looking forward to sitting down with a pint at the Two Boats.  We did sit down but they had run out of bitter … so Guiness and IPA it was.  It was fortunate we hadn’t been wanting to eat there as they had had to stop taking orders and couldn’t even give one hungry chap at the bar an estimate of when he would be able to order.  It soon cooled down again but it was a beautiful evening.

9 locks (including Bascote staircase), 3½ miles