Bridge 31 to Long Itchington (Grand Union Canal)

It was a lot cooler when we got up this morning, but still decided to chug off nice and early, well for us anyway!   Just as we were getting ready to leave, two boats came along so we waited for them to pass, a bit of a nuisance as if it had been only one boat, we could have shared the locks with them as they are double locks, but now we will have to go behind them on our own, never mind.

In Bascote bottom lock

We set off at 8.30am and traveled along the canal to the first lock, the two boats were just leaving so I went up, emptied the lock and opened one gate to let Kev in.  Soon we were through that lock and on our way to the next one, soon through that and at the third one, a boat was waiting to come down so we could leave the gate open.

Going through Bascote staircase

On along the canal to Bascote Staircase locks.  When doing a staircase, you just have to check that the top lock is full and the bottom lock empty.  As we were going up the lock, Kev came into the bottom lock, then I emptied the water from the top lock into the bottom lock and when it was level, I opened the gate the Kev went into the top lock.  I then filled the top lock and out we went onto the main canal.  As it’s a double lock, if there had been a boat coming down, they could have come into the top lock as we came into the bottom lock and then swapped over in the middle which is quite fun to do, but unfortunately no boats were in sight, it was just us.

We chugged on for a mile or so and then we were at Long Itchington. A lot of boats were moored up before Bridge 26, so I walked up under that Bridge and also Bridge 25 to where there are some more moorings by The Two Boats Inn and as there were some spaces, Kev moved the boat up and we moored there.

Long Itchington Village Pond

Sign for Village Pond

The sun came out and it was very warm, not as hot as yesterday though, thank goodness, so we went for a walk up the first couple of locks, then up the road and through the village.  Unbelievably there are four pubs in the village and two pubs on the canal, an alcoholics dream, Kev has never been so happy!!  There is a co-op and post office as well and a village green with a duck pond which is over a century old. There are several houses of the 17^th and 18^th C, a very nice village.

We walked back to the canal and just chilled out for the afternoon.  Late afternoon, the sky darkened and it got very windy and rained quite hard for a while, hopefully it won’t come to much and we don’t get any thunder and lightening.

We are staying here until Sunday to build up our stamina to tackle the Stockton flight of 10 locks. 

Moored at Long Itchington