The Hatton Flight

Tuesday 18th June, 2013 at Rowington
It almost felt like summer this morning! For the first time since MM was launched 18 months ago, we were able to have the back doors wide open at breakfast time. Lovely! R popped along to the office to make a donation to the Saltisford Arm Trust as a "thank you" for the free electricity, and at 9:15 we set off, followed by Steve, Sharon and Goldie in "Mutley".

The Hatton flight is 21 wide locks in under two miles. We decided to lash the two boats together and Steve steered them very competently while R, M and Sharon did the locks. Mostly the locks were set against us as there were other boats going up in front of us, but with three of us, one person could always walk ahead to the next lock to set it.

We made very good progress and made it to the top in just on four hours. It was quite hard work, but the sun was shining and we took time to chat to passers-by, so the time passed quickly. The flight of locks gains 146ft 6in and looked quite strange with the unusual tall white paddle mechanisms, but they were not nearly as intimidating as we had been led to believe. In fact, they could almost be described as being a breeze!
Near the top lock was a lovely sculpture of a dragonfly and a plaque commemorating the flight.

At the top, we said farewell to Steve, Sharon and Goldie, who were heading for Stratford-upon-Avon and wanted to press on. We stopped so that R could do another Capture training session and afterwards we wandered along to the Hatton Locks' Tea Shop by the top lock. It had a great notice on the door!

There we had excellent toasted tea cakes, tea and coffee. Yum!
We decided to push on a little further today as there is another big flight of locks ahead, which we would like to get done tomorrow before the weather is due to break.
At the Shrewley Tunnel (433 yards), M walked over the top and discovered that the working horses had a separate tunnel of their own. The inside of the main tunnel was coated with limestone from the water running down the walls for hundreds of years - and the water was still falling from the roof - hence R's umbrella!

On the side of the cutting, it was interesting to see the layers of shale with strips of the local Blue Lias stone runing through it.

Sharon had told us of a good mooring near Bridge 61 and so it proved to be. At that point, the canal is on an embankment with far reaching views on ether side. It was surprisingly remote and no-one walked or cycled past us all evening, although we did have a visit from a very cute family of ducks peering through the galley window hoping to be fed (they were not disappointed!).

We also heard a cuckoo as we sat on the stern; the first that either of us have heard for mnay years.
Today: 5 miles, 21 locks and 1.9 hours (Steve was driving with MM's engine switched off).
Trip: 125 miles, 106 locks and 102.1 hours