Tuesday 24^th July

Arrived at the boat in the late afternoon as June had had an earlier appointment at home. It was so hot that once we had unloaded the car we just wilted in the heat.

Phoenix was very good and we just took her several short walks so that she was not adversely affected by the heat.

* Marina in the evening sun

So many boats were out of the marina that it looked empty and as I walked around the edge there were large shoals of small fry darting everywhere and jumping out of the water as a pike chased them. In between most of the pontoons were small shoals of very large Carp, I would estimate between 2 and 3 feet in length.

*Carp Shoal

*Typical size of Carp

I am told there is even an orange Carp but I did not manage to see it. It shows that the water quality in the marina is good and the no fishing rule has encouraged the population growth.

We had to wait until 8pm before it was cool enough to wash the dust off the boat and as we did so the moon came clearly into view.

* Marina Moon

Wednesday 25^th July

A bright and sunny morning woke us up early and even though we had thought it would be too hot at night to sleep when we fell into bed at 11pm, we all slept like logs. Phoenix didn’t even wake up when I made a cup of tea at 5.30am.

We had an early breakfast and left the marina at 7.15am with hardly a ripple on the water (where has windy Brinklow gone).

* Marina Morning

Not a sign of a moving boat as we headed through the Newbold Tunnel towards Rugby, a boat finally coming into view as we passed Rugby Boats. We rounded the corner near the park side moorings and came across a boat partly across the canal with no stern rope attached. We manoeuvred passed and moored on the towpath side when a very apologetic gentleman emerged and started to get the boat back to the side, not sure if the pins had come out or he had been set adrift.

Took Phoenix down to Tesco for the paper and some provisions and then headed for Hillmorton.

Phoenix soon settled down to the role of a ships dog and stayed asleep all through our ascent of the locks. We were pleasantly surprised that we did not have to wait at any of the locks and the volunteer lockie at the top lock told us that it was quieter now than when the weather had been wet.

*First Pound of Hillmorton Locks

As we came around the blind approach to bridge 80 a boat coming the other way told us to stop as there were divers in the water repairing the bridge. Why they put the warning sign on the bridge and not before the bend I will never know. The divers called us through and they appeared to be using some sort of cement to seal the under water part of the crumbling structure.

We moored up for the day about a mile before Braunston  in nice spot with a lovely shady tree. Sat on the bank and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful day. It was only disturbed by an enormous Bull on the opposite bank trying to attract the attention of the cows in the field on our side.

*Bull

* Cute Phoenix tries it on