Thursday, 12 April 2007

They were beauties.

0 Locks, 91/2 Miles, 1 Tunnel and now moored at Bridge 27 Leicester line.
Total of 205 locks and 210 miles and 6 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

The first beauty of the day was a large (2-3lb) Perch. I was just about to give up fishing for the morning when I lost sight of the float so I gave it a tug and low and behold a fish. I tried to land the beauty but without a landing net the odds were against me. Dot heard the splashing and commotion but unfortunately did not make it in time to take a photo.
Memo: I must buy a landing net.
The second beauty was the weather. If this is spring what’s it going to be like in summer? The temperature has been around 23deg ‘C’ with clear skies. It has been picnic mode all along the towpath with boats moored up and the picnic tables and chairs out everywhere. Reminded us of the caravan club back in NZ all gathered around in the sunshine.
At lunch time we moored just south of the Welford arm on what are probably the best moorings on this canal. It is actually the aquaduct over the river Avon which at this point is no more than a stream. There is concrete edging with mooring rings and deep water, no mooring on an angle. I decided to investigate the stream closer as it was clear and fast flowing so I thought there may be a trout or two but unfortunately not. While I was climbing the grass bank back up to the towpath I saw something move just in front of my boot. On closer investigation I found myself eyeballing a
Grass Snake which took off in to the long grass before I had chance to catch it.
I then did a bit of rust removal and under coating while Dot prepared lunch. After lunch we decided that as it was such a good cruising day and I had to wait 2 hours for the paint to dry we would push on towards Crick.

When we reached our present position we decided to moor up for the night as good moorings are hard to find along the Leicester line, at least with sufficient water not to be sitting on the bottom on an angle.

Other things of interest seen along the way were a couple of Partridge in a field of some sort of grain crop and plenty of Pheasants. We also watched a pair of Hawks soaring on warm air thermals probably hunting for food.

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