Something to think about

Sunday 2^nd June; Brownsover to above Hillmorton locks

Ooh, I am getting a bit behind with this blog, over ten days now.  Never mind.  On a lovely sunny morning, not at all like yesterday’s dreadful weather, I popped over to Tesco for the Sunday paper before we pushed over to the water point to fill up before leaving.  Unfortunately the Elsan was out of action, but we’ve got 2 spare cassettes so that didn’t matter over much.  

It was a lovely morning as we cruised through Clifton, passing another load of elders in full bloom.  They were the remains of a hedge that used to extend over the building site;  what will become of it i wonder?

More poppies were in full flower on the banks hiding the devastation of the building works at Hillmorton.  But the weather was changing.

By the time we were approaching the bottom of Hillmorton locks, the cloud had come over, the wind had come up, and as we came into the bottom lock the rain started.  Just too late to moor up and wait it out!  We didn’t notice when we came down a few days ago that there is a herb bed by the lockie’s hut.

They herbs looked so fresh and delicious that I was sorry we didn’t need any.  We decided to pause in the bottom pound to empty a cassette.  The Elsan point is quite a walk away over the bridge and as Dave started on his way across the canal, the rain got heavier … and heavier.  He was not best pleased and returned with water pouring off his wet weathers – at least I had sheltered inside.  But we couldn’t stay there and we had all our gear on, so up the locks we went, with Meg curled up inside.

At the middle pair of locks, the towpath one was already empty, so of course we used that.  The other one was busy emptying itself.  The boat a way ahead of us must have used that side, but the leakage was so appalling – both sides of the gate and the middle were gushing – that it was half empty.  The pound above was pretty low.

At the top pair, the rain was still hammering down.  We rose, slowly – with a top paddle out, it was bound to be slow.  As we waited, and waited, a single-hander came into the other side, where TWO paddles were out, one top and one bottom.

We discussed, naturally, the dire state of the busiest lock flight in the country.  I must get round to sending a comment to CRT.

There was no space for us on the moorings directly above the locks, so we went on under the next bridge, where the edge is ok, but the iron beam holding the piling back doesn’t have gaps to put your nappy-pin piling hook.  Luckily there were lots of bits of rope looped through it, so we were able to moor fairly easily for a rather late lunch.  The rain didn’t stop till nearly 5, and it was wellies for Dave when he took Meg out.  She, of course, doesn’t mind wet grass at all.

Oh yes, that post title.  We have been wondering for a while about our boating future.  Cruising will be considerably restricted this year because of hospital visits and family commitments over the summer. We would have called in to Rugby Boats for a chat yesterday, just to find out whether Chuffed is likely to be saleable, but the relevant person was not in.  The wet and windy weather today was certainly not conducive to turning and going back. Anyway, no decision has been made.

3 miles, 3 locks