Longhole Bridge to Radford Smelly

Today we were going to be passing our last water point before Christmas, so as the heating had been on first thing I made use of the hot water and had a shower before we set off. The sun was out again as we ventured further towards Leamington Spa.

The first lock along this stretch is quite a distance from any road, you can tell this by the lack of paint and amount of rust on the gates and paddle gear. The paddle I opened to empty the lock made a slightly worrying hissing noise as the water ran through below, but it survived in one piece and didn’t explode.

Once down our second lock of the day we pulled over to top the water tank up. There is an Elsan here, all very clean. A sign in the hedge by the tap says that it is out of use currently due to health and safety reasons for the operative emptying the cess pit. Notes have been added to the sign suggesting it has been out of action for sometime.

On the side of the elsan a new looking box was labelled Cesspit telemetry. Is this elsan still out of use? Hunting round the stoppage page on the C&RT website it suggests that it was reopened on the 7th November this year. There certainly isn’t anything on the actual elsan suggesting you can’t use it.

*We have now had confirmation from C&RT through Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes that this Elsan is now fully open. Someone will be along to remove the sign that had been missed.*

Down Fosse Middle Lock a boat came towards us, so we could leave the gates open for them and carry on to the next lock not that far away.

We were now looking for a mooring as close to Radford Bottom Lock as possible. Here is an ideal place to bring a car to load and unload things. But the moorings above the lock were some distance away and a chap was practicing firing an air pistol at the trees there, not an ideal spot for Tilly! The towpath was also very muddy.

As we got closer to the lock we could see that a pair of boats had just ascended, so we carried on down the lock hoping for somewhere there to pull in. Here the designated winter moorings started. There was a gap, but we decided to carry on to below the church in Radford Semele for the day. This was further than planned and not handy for car access, but better for Tilly tonight.

Tilly had a good couple of hours whilst I got on with writing lists. The big food shopping list being the main one. A batch of puff pastry was mixed and popped in the fridge, I’ve added a touch more Xantham gum and water than usual to see if that would make it less crumbly whilst rolling it out. The first roll and turn went very well, the second and third a touch messier. I’m sure it’ll taste fine once it’s got sausage meat inside it.

I’ve checked back on previous visits here for TV signal. Last years visits fall into the posts that have lost their photos and when we moored here on Lillian it was before I’d started to do the thumbs up/down for signal quality every day. No wonder no body is moored here, the only channels we can get without the internet are shopping channels. We really don’t want a new mattress even if it is such a bargain!

5 locks, 2.69 miles, 4 boats moving, 1 topped up tank, 1 boat a bit too far, 1 happy cat, 2 sides A4, 3 more turns to go, 42 bayleaves left, 1 possible change of Christmas mooring, £520 saving.