Preston Bagot Lock (South Stratford) – Sunday 27th and Monday 28th April

There was last minute sprucing up of Mary H yesterday morning and then we were off to Hatton bottom lock so we could walk to the station to meet Maggie and Richard.  I had been following their National Express bus on the website so we arrived at the station just as the bus pulled in.  It was lovely to see them both again as it had been a year.

We had a quick lunch and set off up the Hatton flight.  The forecast had been for rain but we were lucky as it turned out into quite a nice afternoon.  We did about seven locks before we were caught up by a hire boat.  They had three crew on the ground and as we had two (Richard I and Richard II) we were racing away.  We met a couple of boats coming down but otherwise it was all ours.  We did the flight in 3½ hours but it was great fun as the other boat crew were amusing.

Some of the Hatton pounds were very full

We decided to head to Turner’s Green for the evening but in fact stopped just after White Bridge in a lovely spot.  Richard II cooked lovely vegetarian pizzas for dinner and just a small amount of alcohol was consumed!

  

Barrel roofed lock cottages

This morning we set off at quite respectable time (10.30am) and headed up to Kingswood Junction where we turned onto the link and moored up so we could walk up to the Canal Shop to stock up on a few maps and also a cup of coffee.  As we were walking back to the boat we saw, in a side pond, Daddy swan shepherding 6 of the tiniest of cygnets that I have ever seen.  Mummy was still sitting on the nest so we assume that there are more to come.  We did a few locks, had lunch and then carried on to complete the Lapworth flight and down through Preston Bagot lock when we pulled over for the night.  Tonight's veggie delight was bolognaise - honestly I would never have known there was no meat in it!

Sunday		Monday
Saltisford Arm to White Bridge		White Bridge to below Preston Bagot Bottom Lock
5.13 miles		6.81 miles
21 locks		17 locks