On the up

Warwick and Leamington Spa sit on the lowest point of this section of the Grand Union. We’d dropped down the Hatton flight the other day, so now we’ve to climb back up the other side.

We made a start today, the first lock only 15 minutes from our overnight near Radford Semele.
We caught up with a family on a hire boat out of Calcutt, so were able to share the first five locks.

Into Fosse Locks.
The locks today were never no more than 15 minutes apart, making it difficult to even get a brew.
We got seperated from our erstwhile locking partners at Welsh Road Lock, where we caught up with a solo boat and NB Sorrel II joined them, leaving us behind.

A bit of a queue at Welsh Road Lock
We just got up the lock on our own when a Viking Afloat boat turned up at the bottom, so we told them we’d wait for them at the next, the bottom of the Bascote Locks.

Bascote Bottom Lock
We shared the first of the single locks, but our previous lock partner was waiting at the second, so we sent the other hire boat up with them. We weren’t in any hurry, and the Viking Afloat boat wanted to get up the Stockton Flight today.

Unfortunately this meant that we were on our own for one single and the double staircase locks to the top of Bascote, but they are very well behaved and predictable, so it was easy to balance the flow to keep Seyella tight against the wall while filling.

In the Bascote Flight
We filled with water at Bascote Bridge, then moored near Long Itchingon. This took two attempts, our first try was frustrated by shallow water at the edges.
All the pounds on this side are lower than normal

Low pounds, shallow edges.
We held up our start this morning, waiting for a bit of rain to clear. We had a few drops around 13:30, a heavy shower while we were filling with water, then a dry bit to the mooring. It was saving itself for an impressive thunderstorm around half-past four. It really slung it down for 20 minutes, I’m glad we were snug against the bank.

Locks 10, miles 5