It was a wild night on the cut. Very blustery indeed and it was good we were on bollards otherwise we would have heard the clank of chains all night if we had put out nappy pins or the long chains. This morning it continued to be blowy and you needed to hang on to keep the boat on course.
We only cruised for an hour to Leamington Spa where we wanted to stop and have a look around. Leamington Spa is actually Royal Leamington Spa as Queen Victoria gave it the “Royal” prefix following her visit in 1838. It was initially where you came to “take the waters” to help you with all and sundry ailments due to the medicinal qualities of its waters.
It was and still is a very wealthy town and you can see it in the rows of well kept terrace homes. It was nice to walk around the centre of the town where there still appeared to be some good life in the High Street. So many of the town centres we have been into Britain are vacant of business with many store fronts bordered up and most open businesses are charity shops. It is so sad to see. It feels as though the country is in the decline but it is more the fact that the business has gone out to the suburbs where there are the huge modern shopping malls.
We had a good wander around the town for about an hour and a half and then came back to the canal via the very vibrant gardens which were impeccably kept and well utilized.
We were going to have our daily cuppa coffee in the park but alas the nice restaurant was closed so it was back to Ange De L’Eau for a good old cuppa tea instead.
Back onto the cut where we had twelve locks to do today and eight further miles. We were fortunate enough to team up with another boater for the last five locks which really is a big bonus as these double locks are real buggers!!!
You gotta love some of these place names. In our book we have one lock called Long Itchington Bottom Lock – think there is a cream for that problem!!!
Look what we found – very aptly named!!
Have pulled up outside one of the eight pubs where we will head in for dinner with our new lock buddies. Might end up doing the 13 locks to Braunston tomorrow. It appears they are from the same marina as Ange De L’Eau is from and that are also like us in that they are looking after someone’s boat.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 