Wednesday 20th July 2016

Woke to another gloriously sunny day and set off from Wootton Wawen for Stratford upon Avon with 17 locks on the way and the promise of another sweltering day.

We crossed the Edstone Aquaduct over a small road, the tributary of the river Alne and twin tracks of the Birmingham and North Warwickshire railway.

 It is the longest on the canal network at 475' but only 28' high so no match for the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct which we crossed last year.  The tow path is below the level of the iron trough which is supported by 13 brick piers.

Being one way traffic we had to wait for 3 boats to cross before we could proceed.

Many of the bridges were very narrow so again we had to slow down to prevent Timothy West's contact sport!

Towards the end of the locks into Stratford they became very heavy and even Graham struggled with this one which had an angled lock beam as they hadn't given much thought to the canal when the adjacent road was built.

Finally at 4pm we arrived at Bancroft basin and waving us in were our friends Jill and Jon who were visiting friends in Stratford and just happened to be passing! We felt like Tim and Prue when they arrived in the TV series - although I'm sure Jill and Jon were the only ones who knew us.

So, we had made it 49 locks in two days. Time for some housework, a visit to the nearby laundrette (luckily a flat walk away) and time to explore Stratford.