Rowkin Rovings Blog

Very cruisy day today. It started off with doing two locks and then the rest of the day consisted of just over another hour of cruising.

We pulled up just outside of Warwick and did a quick shop at the Tesco there before setting off again. Warwick and Leamington Spa are towns that are joined at the hip, they are so close.

We passed this lovely pub which we remember very fondly as it was back in 2016 where we caught up with Marlene and Wolfgang.

It was when we still had Maples and although it was the end of our trip it was such a wonderful reunion.

We went a total of five miles today which is rather slack for us but are spacing ourselves between various flights of locks. Tomorrow we are back into it but this time we are climbing.

Came across this beautifully restored boat with it’s butty. A butty is exactly like a trailer and it does not have an engine. When you see these magnificent boats working locks, it shows you some amazing skills that the drivers have.

As we have said  a number of times in the past, you do see some weird stuff on the cut. We can not quite fathom why you would have sliding glass doors that goes directly out into the canal??

We pulled up just before the start of the stretch of locks for tomorrow and behind Janet and Dave.

To fill in the early evening, it was off for a walk along a disused rail line to stretch the legs and get some exercise in. From the canal we could see this church tower.

Once we got to the church we went inside and were met by the local vicar. What surprised us greatly was that inside it had all been rebuilt in a very sympathetic style even though it was modern. The vicar explained to us that in 2008 it burnt down and hence the rebuild. The church was founded in 1086 which is over a 1000 years old – very hard to get your head around.

A number of beautiful thatched cottages were in the village that we wandered through. The reasons for the straw animals or finials as they are called, on the top of the roof, have a significant history. We had spoken to a Thatcher many years ago who told us that in the old days once the roof was finished, the Thatcher would place one of these straw animals on the roof until you paid the remainder of the bill. If you didn’t, of course all your neighbours could see that you had moths in your wallet.

Following our walk we came back to our subterranean world and Dave and Janet joined us for a game of cards and shared a bottle of wine with us. It was a lovely, fun filled evening. We then finished off the evening with two episodes of Poldark which we are slowly chewing through. We are up to Series Three, Episode Three. It is rather addictive as Aidian Turner is certainly easy on the eye! – Di comment here.