We awoke to a bright sunny day with very few clouds and, apart from a spell in the middle of the day, it remained that way with wonderful colours in the last hour before sunset.
We moored last night below Lock 31 so there were still five more locks to do to complete the flight. Even as we cast off at 8:30 boats were coming up - five in all before we arrived at Budbrooke Junction.
It is not much further to the two Cape Locks but we had a short delay as a boat was already coming up the first. When it emerged it proved somewhat unusual! It seems that the heap of assorted rubbish had been pulled out of the canal in Leamington Spa - another boater told us that it only took three hours to retrieve this lot. It is always hard to understand what goes through the mind of people who dispose of stuff in this way, mostly quite unnecessary.
The longest pound today runs through Warwick and Leamington. Part way it crosses the River Avon on an aqueduct. There is a campaign to extend the navigable river from where we reached a couple of days ago through to the Grand Union and this is the more likely p;ace where the junction could be constructed. Opposition has come from the owners of Warwick Castle, now a tourist attraction owned by the Tussauds Group. If it were to become a reality it would greatly extend cruising options.
Between Warwick and Leamington there are several supermarkets close to the canal. We stopped at Morrisons for a chance to replenish our stores. Whilst Andrew and Christine went over the road to the store, Mike stayed behind to replenish Christine's kindling store which she had noted earlier was almost empty. Lighting the stove each evening is now an effective way of keeping the cabin cosy as the temperature at night drops markedly.
We continued through a few more locks, beginning at Radford Bottom, but then stopped for lunch - and another of Christine's soups, this time aided by the bones from last week's lamb joint. On the way we had a very quick pause at Fosse Road Bridge to use the elsan disposal point.
The sky became a little cloudy, with some dark spots in the distance but they came to nothing and soon cleared.
Here we are at Bascote Bottom Lock just after lunch.
We arrived at Long Itchington at a quarter to four with ten locks to go to the top of the Stockton Flight. With last night's experience behind us we opted to push on, but were held back a bit by traffic in the other direction, some of which was rather slow.
Nevertheless, we left the top lock just 65 minutes after entering Long Itchington Bottom. Not bad for ten wide locks!
At the top lock, Lock 4, there is an intriguing memorial bench. Never seen one quite like this before, with those little closing doors.
Just above the top lock we quickly found a spot to moor with a tv signal - Doc Martin tonight so required viewing for those who live in north Cornwall!
12.4 Miles - 27 Locks
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