We had a "day off" yesterday, i.e. the boat stayed on its pontoon mooring in Bancroft Basin, Stratford-on-Avon. We walked around the town dodging (other) tourists in the day, and enjoyed a more peaceful walk along the river in the evening.
This morning I took a photo of our spot in the basin after some boats had left, then we left too.
The third lock up, Lock 53, has an unusual bottom gate balance beam. Actually, that's a misnomer. The metalwork at right angles to the gate - to avoid fouling the bridge - hardly balances the weight of the gate at all, making it very hard to move.
We watered up and emptied the Elsan at Valley Cruisers. The boatyard seems to share the CRT facilities. Then we moved across to the towpath side where we tied up, had lunch and went to the nearby Aldi. When we got going again we caught up with a newbie hireboat crew attempting their first lock. They did quite well, getting through the lock quickly, but they left the top gate open and a paddle up. At the next lock they'd improved - they just left the top gate open. The locks were all in their favour, and against us, of course, so it took four or five locks before I could gently educate them in some lock etiquette. Above Lock 43 we were relieved to see that they were tying up. The next locks were now in our favour - hooray!
I tried a different shot of the Edstone (Bearley) Aqueduct.
Just south of Wootton Wawen a new marina is being dug out. Very red soil here.
The rain held off and some late afternoon sun lit the trees nicely.
We stopped at Wootton Wawen and ate in the Navigation Inn. I had a good mixed grill (steak done to perfection: a proper "medium-rare" resulting from the requested "rare").
Look up in the lobby by the loos next time you're there and you'll see this rather good stained glass skylight.
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