After the Sunshine …….

 We left the Hatton flight behind after an overnight pub stop, and had some fairly uneventful motoring towards the Kingswood junction. 


This involved the Shrewley tunnel, which was a doddle after Braunston. It has an extra tunnel for the horses to go through as there wasn’t room for a towpath! 




Our next drama was a bit of a surprise. At the Kingswood junction, we knew we would have to negotiate a left turn, and then get the correct right hand turn to get on the Warwickshire ring. 

None of this is anything like you would expect. The canal pound was quite shallow, and Andy took a wide turn before attempting to turn the sharp left hand turn. Before he knew it the bow of Double 0 had mounted the shallow right hand sandbank instead of going left, and we were listing, stuck, dead stopped and looking embarrassed to say the least. A few swear words, and me pushing like hell with a barge pole, it was no use. Stuck solid on the sandbank.

Fortunately, other boaters tend to be friendly and helpful, and a kind man offered to pull us off using our two tie-up ropes, tied together. We threw them across to his boat, and they landed in the canal, 4 foot from his own boat. He had to grab it with a boat hook. 2 x barge poles and a big tug later, and we were off again, Andy badly shaken by all this, and me feeling cross that I hadn’t managed to get a photo.😖

All before the quaint and narrow junction itself!



Rain ensued.


So we bunked down close to a lovely pub in a smart part of Warwickshire, The Boot, gratefully benefiting from  divine cuisine. Look out ducks! Sorry, but with cherry gravy?! Yummie . 😋😋.

Comments

  1. BermitravellerMay 29, 2024 at 7:18 PM

    Having had several weeks cruising before christening the barge pole I think you are doing well. We remember having to use ours on day 2- to the entertainment of the highly amused Sunday gongoozlers and pub crowd. :) :)

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