Living in a hallway: Leaving the Rivers

What a great day. The weather has turned in our favour it was a lovely day for doing the Hatton Flight. The down side was we were the only boat going down (south) and we only met a few boats going the other way so we had to do a lot of work.

We are very suprised how quiet the canals have been since Birmingham there has not been alot of traffic.

The Avon river was an experience, the locks are wide, deep and ferocious particularly when heading up stream.

Fortunately we hooked up with an old fella (Paul) who was travelling solo. So we teamed up for the next couple of days. It was much better having two boats travelling together even though we still had a couple of hairy moments. At one stage Linda was panicking the boat was going to capsize. (There was nothing to worry about, Paul reports our hull blacking is in good condition).

Once we made it to Stratford Upon Avon we relaxed in the basin and spent a couple of days exploring and having a few pints with Paul in the evening. Even though Paul was staying an extra day he kindly helped us through the next flight of locks on the Stratford on Avon canal. Racing ahead on his push bike to prepare the next lock.

After leaving Paul we continued on along the Stratford on Avon Canal and had a couple of overnight stops one being Wooton Wawen (we didn't see any wascally wabbits). An interesting village with an old church, part of which is over 1000 years old and was built by the Saxons.

Its been a week of Abbeys, Churches and Cathedrals one thing that has got Kens goat is they all advertise free admission, then when you're half way around they have a sign saying how much it costs to keep the church going and asking for an expected donation of around 7 pound, some even have credit card facilities in the church.

They are beautiful buildings and its amazing to think they were built hundreds of years ago, you have to admire the craftsmanship.

We are moored tonight on the Hatton Locks. A flight of 21 locks down into the City of Warwick. We will do the last 3 locks in the morning before making our way through the city.

Here are this weeks videos and photos.