Wilmcote Bottom Lock to Bancroft Basin
Cuppa in bed. The weather was still calm, we opted to head off before breakfast to try to keep ahead of storm Austen. Waterproofs on just in case.
The approach towards Stratford is a little industrial, not much to look at, apart from one house. We dropped down Bishopton Lock. Noted the old hire base where there is a water point and bins. At one point we’d considered getting a winter mooring at Bancroft Basin for November. Staying on CRT water would have saved us a months Avon Navigation Licence, but Mick would have had to work his way through the four locks between here and the basin for water and bins. Not ideal to have to single-handedly get to the services.
At Birmingham Road Lock we had gongoozlers watching as they had their breakfast both at the Premier Inn and at MacDonalds.
Next was Maidenhead Road Lock. I remembered this lock very well! The bottom gate has a meccano type contraption of a cranked lock beam. I seriously struggled with it when we were here before. Not much to put my feet against, the stonework potentially slippy. I waited until very little movement could be seen in the water below the lock, got hold of the very end of the arm with one hand and pulled using my body weight. Well, blow me over! It moved easily and steadily, no need to alter position to keep the gate moving. Maybe some work has been done to it so it’s balance is better.
Below a boat was coming up the next lock. I looked at how I would lower the paddle, I’d have to dip down and be within the framework, my knees didn’t fancy that, so I opted to leave the paddle up, it would be much easier to close once the gate was closed. I made sure I mentioned this to the crew.
Oliver’s Lock, the last of the day, has some very nice planting along side it. It’s a shame someone has also decided to add their tags to the off side wall and lock beam. We dropped down and were soon passing under the low bridge into Bancroft Basin. Ahead the RSC building.
Trip boats and ice cream boats were in the basin along with one other narrowboat, so we had plenty of moorings to choose from. We pulled in and did our best to tie up to the short pontoon. We’d made it before the storm hit, time for breakfast.
About an hour later the wind started to build, some rain too. More ropes were required, the centre lines from the roof were just encouraging Oleanna to rock in the wind. Mick put out lines from the fender eyes on the gunnels, this improved things.
I put a shopping list together so that we could have a Saturday roast tomorrow, then headed out to do the shopping leaving Mick sorting out a laptop with a working hinge for me to take with me to Chippy. I visited a butchers and checked on a few restaurants, then compared prices between Sainsburys, Tesco and M&S the only options in this part of the town.
For the next month I will mostly be eating chicken, so I splashed out on a half leg of lamb. I also picked up a bramley to make a crumble, but omitted to weigh it before paying so I popped it back. A check on the river level on the way back, the Avon was in the green, hopefully it would stay that way for the morning.
The weather had been blustery here but not that wet. However up in Scarborough things were very VERY WET! There had been a cloud burst, flooded roads and houses. Where I’ve spent much of this year walking was under feet of water!
Normally this weekend our friends Dawn and Lee of Animated Objects do Moonlight On The Lake at Peasholm Park. You walk round the lake and wonder at all the beautiful lanterns they have been making over the last few months, a serious amount of work goes into the event. But safety wise it had to be cancelled, so just about as soon as they’d finished installing everything they were having to do the get out before anyone could get to see it. Such a sad outcome after so much work.
As it was still stormy we had some bolognaise sauce with jacket potatoes that were baked in the multi fuel stove, they had good crunchy skins.
25 locks, 2 miles, 1 short pontoon, 2 extra ropes, 2 tickets left, 2 expensive! 1 late breakfast, 1 leg of lamb, 1 bag carrots, 2 potatoes, more can wait, 1 blowy afternoon, 1 bored cat.
