Hi All,
Wednesday 17th September 2008 - Continued We wend our way through the countryside in solitude and eventually find ourselves at lock 38. This is a tricky lock preceded by two bridges and a tight turn in the middle. While the lock is filling a young BW man appears with a clipboard. He is checking the lock gate and taking photographs. We get chatting, as you do and he informs me he is in charge of the maintenance on this section of canal. The maintenance they are doing is very impressive.10 lock gates this year and a possible 13 next year. Plus all the normal repair and make doo that is required as needs must. We are already aware of a stoppage further up at locks 27, 23 and 22 via very informative signs on all the locks and an email from Brian Holt. I ask how flexible the times are as we will struggle to get to lock 23 by 4pm. "You get there in time we let you through" came the reply with a sly grin.. OK, the challenge was on. Wendy was steering and I used the trusty bike to set locks as fast as I could. Most of the locks were in our favour which helped and the ones that were against us could be set before LT was about the enter. Onward and upward. We reached lock 27 I good time but the workmen were already setting up. They were cutting holes on the lock walls and taking the samples away for examination. At 4pm we reached lock 22 and I could see the men working in lock 23. I cycled up to lock 23 and they had already started. A big lighter ( I think that is the correct term ) was being unloaded from inside the lock. I asked, "Any chance of passage". At this point the chap I had spoken to earlier turned round " blimey, you made good time" he said. After a short conflab with colleagues they agreed to let us through. Hoorah :-) What a fine body of men the BW maintenance chaps are. I take everything back I said in part 1 In 20 minutes we were up and out of locks 23 and 22 after the last lock (21) were onto the water station at Kingswood Junction. I took the opportunity to wash the bike while we were there, as the towpath for the last 6 or locks were very muddy. Good job we did not need to dump the dunny, that was being refurbished as well. Our original target for the day was Tom O the Wood but that is closed, so we made our way down there anyway and moored up at 6.30pm just below Rowington. Lovely spot and very quiet. Good TV picture as well, even got some Digital channels..All in all a great day. The Stratford canal is wonderful. Yes the locks are hard but it is well worth the effort. I look forward to having a more leisurely return next week. After diner I downloaded the emails on the dongle, 3g here and very fast. Mr Holt, who is turning out to be our fairy godfather, informed us that Terry Streeter was in the area on Arun and heading Hatton way on Thursday. A quick text to Terry confirmed our onward passage and we would meet up for the flight. More later Regards Andrew & Wendy - Tales From The River [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
