Rowington Hill Bridge 62 to Black Boy Bridge 69
After yesterdays exertions our pace slowed down somewhat. Pushing off around 11 we left our high up mooring for someone else to enjoy, shame the weather hadn’t been better last night as it would have been a lovely spot for a barbeque.
We tried to guess how many goats we’d see before Tom O Wood Bridge, Mick said 15 I said 12, it turned out to be only 7, only two were sat outside their huts. The Virginia Creeper over the bridge will soon look wonderful, shades of red starting to come through. We pulled in at the water point to fill the tank, a load of washing had been on the go.
Whilst we filled I made use of an over ripe banana that Mick had wanted to throw out! It was sooo ripe that the skin fell to bits as the almost liquid flesh slid into my mixing bowl. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a banana soooo ripe. Another not so ripe one was added, chocolate, sugar and butter put on to melt. With flour added the batter was ready for the oven just as the water tank boomed. I set the timer and off we set again.
At Kingswood Junction we kept a straight course. Here at Lapworth a link joins the Stratford Upon Avon Canal to the Grand Union, narrow locks take you down to Stratford or up towards the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. But we were going straight on keeping on the Grand Union.
Once past the junction Oleanna was on new water, new water for Tilly also! We’ve been up here on a hire boat to wind, and back in May 2015 we came out from Birmingham this way, this time we’re climbing in to Birmingham.
We pootled on for about three quarters of an hour, the timer reminding me to check the contents in the oven, that just needed another five minutes, perfectly timed as we were now looking for somewhere to moor for the day.
On the off side we’d noticed there was a marina under construction. Big piles of earth sit behind what looks like a channel wide enough to take moored boats on either side with space in between to move a boat, no winding hole visible. There was a stoppage last year for the marina to be connected to the canal and today it was certainly in water, but with stop planks across the entrance.
A brief look on line has brought up reports of planning permission refusals, appeals and construction going ahead despite these. But these reports were from a decade ago, for them to have almost linked to the canal planning permission must have been granted. On Google earth it looks like the marina may be intended to grow.
With space at the end of the moorings before Black Boy Bridge we pulled in for the day, the chocolate banana loaf now cooling and making us very hungry, time for lunch. Tilly was given a couple of hours to explore her new surroundings, they must have been appealing as we didn’t hear anything from her for quite sometime.
A little bit of gardening was called for. My wild strawberries needed some pruning. I managed one trough of what had been four plants, this trough had produced 57 babies. Anne had suggested trimming most of them off and removing any dead leaves which I did. The bigger babies were popped into another trough with compost, the others were donated to the hedgerow.
Only time to do one trough before Tilly was left to keep an eye on Oleanna and we headed to the pub to meet up with my college friend Emma who lives in Warwick.
Today was her day off from the British Motor Museum where she is the Life Long Learning Officer. We had chance for a quick catch up over a cuppa (and a pint for Mick) whilst sheltering under a huge umbrella outside the pub. Emma has been kept very busy during the pandemic producing online content for the museum and breeding Burmese cats. Lovely to have a catch up, next time we must make sure we do Hatton when she has a day off as Emma used to own a narrowboat, so knows how to weald a windlass.
Sadly I didn’t have enough chocolate of the right sort to properly ice the loaf, but I made do with what I had and it passed muster for pudding.
0 locks, 4.32 miles,1 straight on, 7, 1 liquid banana, 1 not so ripe, 20 minutes to melt and mix, 20 minutes to fill up, 1 hour to bake, 1 hour to cruise, 4 plants now 8, 57 babies, 3 years, 2 cuppas, 1 pint, 4 kittens, 80 grams not 100! 0 butter just spread, 2 light as anything slices of slightly oddly iced chocolate banana loaf, 450 leaves, 1 almost but not quite Mrs Tilly stamp.