No boats to share the locks with...

We left Leamington spa heading closer to Long Itchington as the guy sorting the bongo out was only about five miles from there. The countryside was very open and it was nice to be away from motorway noise and the hubbub of the town. 

We found a lovely mooring a lock below the staircase lock but walked the half mile or so to where we should have been mooring to see if it was any better. It wasn't a patch on where we were so we stayed put. Whilst walking up through the locks we saw a boat that was having difficulty near the bridge hole. They had a suspected failed clutch and had pulled their boat through the last of the locks but were now firmly aground. We helped push and pull the boat a few hundred yards to where the canal was wider so they could moor and wait for the river rescue guys on Monday.

Once back on LJ a pair of hotel boats came down through the locks just at the time that the afore mentioned idiot hirers came bumping around the corner breasted up. Luckily the hotel pair managed to squeeze through and moored up a few hundred yards behind us. Their clients were treated to a beautiful sunset on their penultimate day of their nine day one hundred plus mile Warwick to Warwick holiday.

The early morning fog and drizzle the next day soon cleared and we were left with a still and pleasantly warm autumn day. It was wood cutting day which, sadistically, we both really enjoyed. We even managed a quick foray to get another big branch from the edge of a field. When we stopped for a quick bite to eat of sarnies and spiced parsnip soup we realised that it wasn't that warm after all. A couple more hours saw the logs stored and all equipment cleaned and put away (I'm glad I haven't got a garage because it would all be in a big pile collecting cobwebs, waiting to be cleaned another day)

A few aches the next morning reminded us of all that hard work before we slowly plodded under heavy clouds to Long Itchington.