Monday, July 02, 2012

Herbie in the sky with diamonds*

She flies through the air with the greatest of ease

That daring young Kath of the famous Herbies

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Coming back up from Stratford today, we had to cross the Edstone Aqueduct.  Kath volunteered to risk her life at the tiller while I ran down the steps to the road to take the picture.

Rather like the more famous Pontyskylight, this aqueduct runs in an iron trough with no guard on the non towpath side so you can fall off and die if you want to.  However the towpath side is more interesting in that the walkway runs at trough bed level, so the walker sees the boat from water level.  The long haired oik taking a picture is our Peter.

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Good innit?

The climb out of Stratford is a bit of a haul and of course it was raining, but were we downhearted?

Naah.  Some of these locks have heavy gates but the setting is mostly green and lush.  I like the views back down the Wilmcote flight.

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The other bit of fun is the bridge obstacle course.  The bridges here are only a couple of inches wider than the boat and some prankster has set them all at an odd angle to the waterway, so getting through one without a bump is a cause for celebration.  I confess we gently nudged a good few.

Here’s one of the few we actually got right.

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Tonight we rest at the delightfully named Preston Bagot. Loads more locks tomorrow.  We’ll either get fit or expire.  Stay tuned to find out which.

* on the roof box

4 comments:

Neil Corbett said...

Neil's 'we' is the Royal one - we didn't nudge bridges when I was driving! :-)
Kath

Unknown said...

Don't you just love that canal though-it's just a "take it steady, one lock at a time," canal. Jill

Anonymous said...

It looks lovely, though I understand now why it looks so lush and green!

'Pontyskylight' will forever be the name of that famous welsh aquaduct for me now :-)

carrie

Anonymous said...

'Pontyskylight' is probably as good a pronunciation as any that are usually mangled (usually by broadcasters!).

I do hate trough aqueducts - that's a great photo though!

Sue, nb Indigo Dream