Short trip to Hillmorton - Sunday 4th August 2013

The  weather forecast had been good for today so we set sail early and motored up towards Hillmorton passing only one boat on the move. At Rugby we waved to Simon on Nb The Dross who was out of the marina for his usual summer vacation and sampling the local inns. Eric had been singing and playing guitar at the local on Friday and several people from the marina had gone along to support him.

We turned just before the first lock and headed back and just through Kent Bridge spotted this lovely Buddleia bush(Butterfly Bush) which June had just bought a plant for our garden. If we had known we could have taken a cutting. A little further on a twitcher was sitting in his chair with telephoto lens at the  ready waiting for sight of a Kingfisher which is nesting in the sand bank nearby.
We moored up for coffee and lunch by the golf course and it started to rain much against the forecast which had been for a nice sunny day. As the Monday was forecast to be wet we waited for a break in the showers and made tracks for home. There was still plenty of mooring on the towpath side at Rugby but the park was full.
We passed over the Avon Aqueduct which had been on the TV this week as the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust had spotted Otters along the river and under the bridge.

As we arrived at the marina the wind and rain stopped and we were able to moor easily on the pontoon.
The Swan family were now down to 4 signets after starting with 7

We had a nice relaxing evening aboard the boat finishing off one or two jobs and getting ready to leave the next morning. It turned out to be a nice warm evening and a I walked around the marina missing the company of a puppy.