Monday 14th July, 2014 at Lowsonford.
A lovely sunny morning. We set off having said cheerio to the chap on the boat moored behind us; it turned out that his father used to be the lock-keeper at Knowle locks.
We were soon at Kingswood Junction where the Grand Union meets the Stratford Canal, one of the most picturesque junctions on the canals. We moored up and walked to the junction just to enjoy the scene in the sunshine. On the way, we found a small village store and rewarded ourselves with second breakfast - two Magnums! (or should that be "Magna"?)
Last year, we came north on the Grand Union and continued north on the North Stratford to King's Norton. This year, we came south on the Grand Union and are continuing south on the South Stratford to Stratford-upon-Avon. The meeting of these canals at Kingswood Junction very much make it an aquatic crossroads.
A plaque at the junction commemorates the fact that this was the first major restoration project on the canals, opened by the Queen Mother in 1964. We liked the quote: "We were not experts, therefore we did not know what could not be done".
We turned off the Grand Union and then took the narrow channel to the left which will take us south; last year we went through the lock on the right (to the north).
On the Grand Union, there had been lots of boats moving in both directions, but strangely, on the Stratford, we saw only one boat in the whole of the rest of the day. Curiously, it was an Austrian family heading towards Warwick. What a far cry from the mountains of their homeland! Earlier in the day, we had met a Norwegian couple, also on their way to Warwick. We meet all sorts of nationalities on the waterways; our funny little canals and eccentric, brightly coloured narrowboats seem to draw folk from around the world. How wonderful!
The guide books wax lyrical about the charms of the South Stratford and we were a bit surprised to see the towpath overgrown in places and lock gates in need of repair.
One gate on lock 25 had dropped so much that it was dragging on the bottom and refused to close even with both of us straining hard. Eventually R used our long pole to lift the 2,000 kg gate and start it moving - it still took all our strength to close it. Later we met some C&RT chaps who told us that the gate pin had collapsed but, although it had been reported, they were waiting to hear confirmation (i.e the right bit of paper) from Head Office before they could fix it!
We passed a number of delightful barrel-roofed cottages that were built for the lock-keepers. The barrel roofs were made using the same formers with which they used to build the canal bridges.
One of them was for sale, apparently it didn't sell at auction as it is still on the market for £320,000.
It was inhabited for many years by Doug Smith, a celebrated cartographer, whose meticulously drawn pen and ink maps of the waterways adorn many an enthusiast's wall - including ours!
The M40 was a most unwelcome intrusion. "Ghastly", thought M. Fortunately it was soon behind us, although the noise can be heard from miles away.
Lowsonford was our goal for today and we moored just across from the Fleur de Lys Inn, where we washed down MM's roof and the side closest to the towpath. To our surprise, as we were having supper, five Anglo-Welsh hire boats went by, crewed by adults but each with half a dozen very high-spirited teenagers on board. Apparently it was a school outing with two "girls" boats and three "boys" boats on their way to Warwick from Stratford-upon-Avon. The adults looked decidedly long-suffering!
Today: 4 miles, 9 locks and 3.6 hours.
Trip: 70 miles, 57 locks and 44.8 hours.
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