First of 23 locks
And another in beautiful rural surroundings
Some signs of habitation by a couple of the locks
It was the best day we have had on this canal, the locks are just delightful and doing 23 didn't seem like hard work at all. Half way up we stopped to have coffee and a rest and whilst there along came Trevor who is the linesman for this length of canal.
Coffee break turned out to be much longer than anticipated as Trevor had lots of interesting tales of the canal. He worked on it for 30 years before retiring and now he looks after this stretch and a couple of feeder reservoirs nearby.
Whilst chatting to Trevor we had a couple of visitors fly overhead.
The locks are some of the best kept we have seen on the canals and with only a couple of exceptions all the paddles are easy to operate
And so to the top and the final staircase of 3.
After reaching the top there is about 1 1/2 miles to the limit of navigation. It is quite narrow and twisty BUT none of that awful blanket weed we have been wrestling with since we came on this canal.
Part way along we passed the old loading quay where they used to load the stone stone that was quarried a few miles away. This was where the stone came from for the Houses of Parliament (so we are told)
The sign opposite the old dock
Near the end now
The last bridge
We both agreed it had been a wonderful day and ALMOST worth the struggle to reach here. We are glad we have done it but are not really looking forward to the return trip, mainly because of the weed.
Still another `Head of navigation` to chalk up
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