We had
another full day of locking ahead of us and as full sun was forecast for the
morning we set off early. We were due to
leave the Grand Union and cross the Lapworth link to head up the North
Stratford canal. So on the map below we
were coming up from the bottom right and going up top left. The black chevrons indicate locks and the
pointy bit indicates which way is going up.
As we were
back on single width locks Karen was soon back into her aero-acrobatics as in
the picture at the top. Most of the 19
locks were close together so I would go into one, fill it up, take the boat out and close the lock
whilst Karen was getting the next one ready for me to go straight into. This way we rose up the flight very
quickly. We only passed one
boat in the opposite direction but there were plenty of dog walkers so we had
to keep Buddy on a tight rein.
This is the
junction where we turned left off the Grand Union into the Lapworth link..
This is the
end of the Lapworth link. Left goes off
South to Stratford which we have already travelled a couple of times this year. We turned right onto the North Stratford
canal towards Birmingham. The first lock
we went into was one we had not been through on this boat before – number 20 on
the inset on the map above.
This is
coming out of the first lock with the South Stratford canal entering from the
left. When we have been here before we
have always come out from the left so that is why we had not been in lock
number 20 before.
A lot of the
side ponds are used for permanent moorings on this flight.
At one lock
Karen managed to get a good close up of a fresh Red Admiral.
She also took
this picture of a guy hard at work.
As it was
such a nice day we got a couple of loads of washing done and had to find extra
space to hang it all – this is quite ingenious of Karen using bungees.
As we always
notice, the bridges on the Stratford canal are ornate. We also went through a couple of draw/lift
bridges.
We moored up
for the day just past this milepost that tells us we are eight miles from Kings
Norton junction which we know is five and a half miles from the centre of
Birmingham. With no locks tomorrow it
will only take a few hours to cover the 13 miles to Birmingham.
Here are the
19 locks we went up today.
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