Sunday 14th August

We wanted to get away early as Stratford-upon-Avon was our destination and with it being a Sunday we weren’t too sure how busy it would be. At the first lock, Bidford Grange Lock, Jim had an altercation with another boat with the chap yelling at him, it wasn’t very pleasant to hear :-( After Welford Lock and before Luddington Lock the river becomes quite narrow and shallow and we came across a boat diagonally across the river and he was stuck fast with his bow on some rocks and his stern on the mud. He had been there some time and a boat in front of us had tried to free him but to no avail. Jim tried to pull him off but that didn’t work either. Fortunately another boat came down the river and was able to pull his stern off the mud with Richard stopping him from going into the opposite bank with a belaying rope! It appears that he had his head down his weed hatch as he was going along and hit the rocks! After Weir Brake Lock and Trinity Locks we moored up at the Recreation Ground – as it was a sunny Sunday afternoon the place was heaving with people but they were all very well behaved :-) Penny wasn’t feeling too well as she had a rotten cold so Richard and I went for a walk into the town and we found a very nice crafty sort of market where he bought me a lovely ring. We walked to Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried and then back across the river on a passenger chain ferry. It was my turn to cook dinner – a toad in the hole which took ages to cook but, I have to admit, was very nice!