Long Itchington

13 Locks, 3.53 Miles. Now moored at Long Itchington.

What a beautiful day for a cruise, blue sky and sunshine. We weren’t the only boats taking advantage of the weather as we passed another 6 boats on the move.

After negotiating the first lock we pulled into Calcutt boats for diesel as they allow self declaration on diesel fuel. This was tricky as you have to back up to the pump but as there was very little wind it went reasonably easy. By the time we had refuelled Uccello was already in the next lock awaiting our return.

Just before the Stockton locks we spotted Nb Hector. We pulled in to see if Paul and Rosemary were home and as we did so Rosemary burst out through the front doors saying “I want to see you” It was nothing drastic only that she wanted to confer with Dot over the NZ Silver Fern logo that she is incorporating in a rag rug she is making for us. After about 15 minutes we had to tear ourselves away otherwise Derek and Carrie would be wondering where the heck we had got to. We found Uccello awaiting our presence in lock 4 but Derek and Carrie were unfazed by our late arrival.

This afternoon we wandered up into the village to find the local Co-op and were pleasantly surprised by the original village built around a pond in the midst of a large road triangle. A potted history of the pond was found on a large notice board. The pond is one of the few remaining ponds dating back to Anglo Saxon times. Originally it is estimated that Britain had 200 million which over the centuries having dried up or been filled in leaving approx; 1.5million in modern day Britain. The pond had a pair of resident Swan’s for 20 years, unfortunately in 2003 the female was killed when attempting to land back on the pond and her mate died soon after. There were a couple of immature swans on the water but they will be a couple of years away from breeding so may not stay.

2050 locks, 4066.79 miles, 76 tunnels, 130 swing bridges and 54 lift bridges since Nov 2006