Earlswood

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.2 miles

Total 2355 Locks  103 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3360.8 miles 

The trip today came to a rather abrupt and unplanned halt just North of the Lady Lane wharf at Earlswood, this was the reason:-

The top photo shows the view that confronted me as I rounded the corner after Earlswood and it was immediately obvious that we weren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. I know that the CRT contractors are pretty good at shifting fallen trees but this one is pretty large, I would guess that there is going to be several tons of wood there. We are not too badly positioned however since there is a water point and elsan about a mile back down the canal, the only question is how near are the shops if we find ourselves stuck here over the next weekend. Of course if I had checked my e-mail earlier I would have known about this blockage since Diane and Ray had sent me a comment warning me of it, unfortunately I only got to see the e-mail whilst I was sending an e-mail to CRT to tell them of the tree down, and by that time I was already within sight of the tree. Failing to read may e-mails resulted in me having to make probably the longest reverse in RUNE that I have ever done since we’ve had it, about ¼ mile, the one saving grace was that no-one was going to be coming past since nothing could get past the tree and anything coming up behind me I would have warned about the blockage.

I went down to the tree to see if there was anything that could be done with my limited tools (a bow saw) but that tree is well beyond my pay grade,we’ll just have to wait and see how long before CRT can get it moved

Lapworth

Here I am Rune

Distance 2.8 miles

Total 2355 Locks  103 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3356.6 miles 

Today was the day for doing the Lapworth Lock flight, so another fairly good work-out. Although it is 2 locks shorter than the Hatton flight it still took us pretty much the same amount of time to get up the flight, about 3hours 15 minutes. This is partially explained by the fact that it is all narrow locks so, by definition, we have to do them on our own, unlike the Hatton flight whereby it is possible to team up with another boat to speed things on their way a bit.

The weather held through the lock flight but at the top is a lift bridge and it was whilst working this that the heavens opened and we both got a bit of a drenching. The decision was then made that we were going no further today. Tomorrow I would hope to get somewhere about the Bourneville moorings hoping that there is a space there.

Rowington

Here I am Rune

Distance 4 miles

Total 2336 Locks  103 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3353.8 miles 

Again, just a short trip to enable us to moor up before the England v Italy rugby match this afternoon.  We are moored at pretty much the same place that we moored when we walked across to look at the Gormley statue at Lowsonford lock, might have a wander across later to see if it is still there.

Probably one of the most impressive parts of today’s trip was an enormous embankment that carried the canal above the Old Warwick Road near St Lawrence Church, Rowington. Bearing in mind that these embankments were built by men with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and horse & carts it is an impressive piece of work. When it was built the locals wouldn’t have ever seen anything like it before. The problem with canal building, when compared to railway building, is that the canal cannot be put into water until the pound is finished whereas when building a railway you can instal a line and use it to carry material to build the embankment.

Hatton

Here I am Rune

Distance 2.4 miles

Total 2336 Locks  102 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3349.8 miles 

Today’s trip, although not a lot in mileage, was a great chunk of locks,  21 to be precise, so it was quite a good work-out. As we have done on several of our previous trips through the Hatton Flight, we managed to team up with another boat which always speeds things on their way (relatively speaking). In a strange way I do like the Hatton flight since the design of the sluices that let the water into the locks actually does what is intended. If you moor the boat by it’s centre line in the middle of the lock and open the sluices on the side to which the boat is moored, the circulatory motion of the water in the lock holds the boat in position, unlike some locks which just blast the boat across the lock.

The trip up the flight took about 3 hours and 20 minutes but since we had got off to an early start (for us) of about 9.40am we were at the top comfortably in time to be able to watch Scotland thrash Wales in the 6 Nations.

I plan for a fairly short day tomorrow to take us up to Kingswood Junction for the night ready for the next flight of locks (Lapworth) on Monday morning. Once we get to the top of Lapworth there are no more locks (other than a permanently open stop-lock) until we get to Birmingham.