Our “Not very far – not very often” method of traversing the inland waterways got superseded by the more exiting “Not very far – but quite frequently” version this week.
Lapworth has been our home for a fortnight and we’ve had a lovely time here; we’ve been for walks all around the local area and it has been great fun to be in a touristy place just as the weather is picking up and spring is raising its head. There are flowers popping up everywhere, dozens of boingy lambs in the field opposite the boat and on a sunny Sunday we get to chat to lots of happy smiling people.
In the middle of it all Dave still managed to rub down and get 2 coats of undercoat on the roof ready for glossing when we dry dock.
When our two weeks were up we set off with Dave’s sister Judith and her partner Vince on board, down the tranquil (when you’re not going under the M40) Stratford-on-Avon canal to Lowsonford and stopped outside the Fleur de Lys pub. It was Judith’s birthday and the first time she’d been on Legend, so she got the Banners and Cake treatment in the afternoon then in the evening Chloe came and joined us for dinner.
Incidentally, Chloe & Shandy are buying a house in Daventry, which is just round the corner from Braunston, home of Midland Chandlers etc. Very handy eh?
The next morning, with the promise of sunshine, we set off again and got as far as the Edstone Aqueduct before we conceded that there was a slight possibility that the weather-man might have been telling porkies. It turns out that as far as the rest of the country was concerned he hadn’t been - London had been warmer than Barcelona – it was just our little corner of Warwickshire that had been colder than Ann Widecombe.
This is Edstone Aqueduct; the longest in England, and only a bit shorter than the Pontypontycyclisty thingy in Wales.
The next morning we walked back to Lowsonford for the car, parked under the aqueduct, then pulled the pins and set off again. (That’s three days in a row!) Ann-Marie rattled us down the 11 very pretty, (but rather hard graft) Wilmcote locks and we moored up just before the Stratford bypass and just in time for tea. Dave cycled into the town to check out the moorings in the basin and find somewhere to park. There are 15 pontoon moorings right in the middle of Tourists-R-Us, which, along with The Baguette Barge and a river cruising restaurant, lie under the shadow of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Not the best place for falling in or mucking up your mooring technique.
So, anyway, as it’s Saturday and there’ll be loads of people about, that’s where we’re going tomorrow. (Four!!) It’s the day before Mother’s day and the plan is to be in the basin when Mum and Dad come to visit for the day on Sunday. Might go for Fish & Chips.
No comments:
Post a Comment