Before the fall

An amazingly quiet mooring - no sound of railway or motorway - not many moorings like that. 

This part of the canal is, however, busy with other boats. A fair mixture of hire craft and private. The only problem is that when they are moored you have to slow down to tickover ie very slow. You'll be charging along at all of 3-4 mph come round a bend, see a boat, slow down, idle past, speed up again, see another boat... and so it goes on. But, we enjoy it, after all, we're not in a hurry. 

Warm enough again to remind us of Greece. An illusion heightened by the flock of sheep gathering in the shade of a tree. Except, in Greece, it would be goats and olive trees. 

Here we are at Wigram's Turn where all the Black Prince hire boats come from.

And round we go.

All the locks on this stretch of canal have hydraulic gearing for the lock paddles. It makes the winding easier but it all takes longer. 

As you wind and wind and wind a rod pushes up out of the white casing indicating that the paddles are open. 

Further on we passed Adamant which looks as if it is a steam powered boat. Blimey, the captain would love that, having to stoke the fire every day.

And now, what looks like an upgrade for the wharf, pods!

Have moored up early just before the Boat Inn and, more importantly, Stockton locks, a flight of 8 locks. Have booked a table at the Boat for a birthday eve celebration for the captain.

In the meantime, a light stir-fry lunch to keep us going.

After lunch, just to fill in an hour or so, out with the bucket and shampoo to wash the nearside of the boat.

Another perfect end to a perfect day.

Well, not quite the end since we had our meal at the pub to look forward to.

We both had prawn and crayfish raviolloni which was delicious. We also had wine and starters and other stuff but the main course was the star.

And now you ask why a title for the blog 'Before the fall'? No, nothing to do with our American cousins and the time of year. It's more poetic than that - tomorrow the canal falls down hill through 8 or 10 locks. We're just building up our strength for the task.

PS no Internet signal so posting a day late.