All of a sudden,
on Thursday morning, the canal seemed busy as all boats were heading for Stratford
upon Avon so hopes were dimming of finding a mooring in the basin. We had to go through 16 locks in about four miles
to get into the centre of Stratford so set off at 10. By this time quite a few boats had gone past in
our direction and only a few the other way.
There was a flight of 11 locks at one point and CRT guys were trying to
turn a boat between two of them.
They were
having difficulty so I gave them a master-class in boat winding.
When we were on the outskirts of Stratford we moored up as we were due to pick up a
delivery of beer and wine for the forthcoming family event over the
weekend. Here’s me dragging some of it
back to the boat – note I am sensibly using a pedestrian crossing.
Speaking to
other boaters we realised we were very unlikely to get a mooring spot in the
basin. We didn’t really mind as we knew
we could go out and moor on the Avon. To
be honest the number of tourists getting pictures of themselves by boats in the
basin would have put us off. This is
us coming into the middle of Stratford.
And here we are going through the basin (there were no spare mooring places).
We headed
through the basin and down the lock onto the Avon. Even though we are used to being watched it
was really unnerving as a lot of the gongoozlers were dressed for the theatre (look at the family on the left lock gate beam).
Here I am
trying to close one of the top lock gates after Karen had closed hers.
Honestly, I
had got it moving before this guy helped me close it completely.
Here we are
moored on the River Avon opposite the RSC for the evening. All in all a more tranquil mooring than in
the basin - we could watch the actors resting on the balconies in the interval.
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