Gentle trip home - Sunday 4th October

On a lovely sunny morning we set off at a gentle pace, we were originally staying out until Tuesday but the weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday was for rain so decided to head home today. However, we soon caught up two share boats one of which seemed to be on their first trip and were very tentative with the steering and almost stopped when passing another boat. At one bridge there were 4 stationary boats behind  them with no where to go until they decided to go through or not. We stopped at Hillmorton Wharf to fill up with diesel (60p/Ltr.) and purchase a couple items and still caught them up at the top of the locks.

The locks were quiet and we were able to go straight down with June at the helm. We moored up for lunch adjacent to Rugby Golf Course and later in the afternoon walked down to the Bridge 66 cafe for afternoon tea and  lovely lemon drizzle cake. The view from the cafe was obscured by an old steam powered boat which they were breaking up. Whilst we were there they cut through the back end and were going to remove the vintage steam engine and re install it in a new day boat they plan to build and hire out.

They were using the tractor unit to drag the stern section away whilst they cut through the bow and central sections of the boat to sell the steel for scrap. Apparently the base plate was so poor it would have cost more to try and repair it than build a new boat. They have sold their other steam boat which we saw in steam on our outward trip.

The rest of the trip back to base was uneventful with plenty of mooring available in  Brownsover if we had needed it. As we were mooring up the family of swans from the marina were having a fight with, we suspect, last years babies and were nearly drowning one of them. I had to get the boat hook out to rescue him twice before he eventually decided to fly off.

Over the last 16 days we have completed 95 miles and 48 locks and travelled through 8 tunnels which covered 9972yds or 5.7 miles of the trip. Quite a nice leisurely trip with glorious autumnal weather.