Stratford upon Avon

Captains Log

Canal Date            26th October 2011
Travels                       Stratford Canal

Thursday, 20 October 2011 Billington Lock to Luddington
A beautiful morning. Sun shining, no wind. It is going to be a good day if a little on the cold side. We had a very slow cruise up the upper reaches of the river Avon. It was just so beautiful. Some stretches are wide some are narrow. As we are in an official drought there is not a great deal of flow and the water is crystal clear. You can see fish every where you look. We eventually called it a day when we reached Luddington. The sun was starting to go down and I was beginning to feel the cold. I soon had a cosy fire going and Pan started dinner. Life is so good.

Friday, 21 October 2011 Luddington to Stratford upon Avon
The top bit of the Avon is very twisty but just as nice as the rest of the river. It’s our last day on the river. We had a 1 week permit. This runs out today.
We are moored in Bancroft Basin opposite to the RSC theatre in the centre of Stratford. There are still plenty of tourists about. Is this place ever quiet?
We walked into the town and to our surprise the Mop fair is on tonight. It is not going to be a quiet night in Stratford tonight!
We had visitors wile in the basin Rhona & Jan turned up. We all went to Coxes yard for lunch.
It is very much autumn now, with mist coming off the water, cold nights and mornings. Bring back my summer, I have not finished with it yet!
Claire and little Liam dropped in to see us; she has not seen the boat before. Not long after, Russ & Sarah came. Once again we all went to find something to eat. We had not been on board for long when Tracy & Ian arrived.

Monday, 24 October 2011 Stratford to Wooton Wawen
We have come to the end of our mooring time at Stratford and it is time to move on, hopefully to quieter moorings. There are 58 locks & 26 mile to go before we get to end of this canal. We left the basin like proper professionals. That does not usually happen to me when being watched! As soon as you leave the basin you start climbing locks, one after the other. The weather was fine but very windy. Our run out of Stratford was slowed down by the rather large amount of hire boats. It is the school half term and they have all come out to play today. We continued up the first two main flights and came over the famous Edison Aqueduct. It was extremely windy up there and I could not get the boat away from the edge. Luckily, we did not get blown over the side and managed to continue to Wooten Wawen. But the time we arrived, the sun was going down almost a fast as the temperatures. It was good to get inside and sit in front of the log burner.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011 Wooten Wawen to Lowsonford
Not far to go today, we do not want to start the main Lapworth flight today. There was some traffic about. Not enough to make a problem. It is school holidays after all. The daytime temperature is dropping each day. I do believe that we are now heading into late summer! This will run up to mid December when early spring starts. I am nothing if not an optimist!