Morning : We left Birmingham, heading for The North Stratford Canal at King's Norton Junction. We had great fun waving at the trains near Bourneville in [..usually successful..] attempts to get them to sound their horns. We moored up by Bourneville Station in an attempt to visit the Cadbury's factory but we found that at that time, there was no access from the towpath, although there is now. We continued to King's Norton Junction and turned down The North Stratford Canal towards Kingswood Junction and The Grand Union Canal.
Lunch : Earlswood. We stopped for lunch at Earlswood, and went to The Bulls Head. Pete says he has a vague memory of Nursie being unwilling to climb over a fence from the canal on to the road. At the point we chose to moor, the canal had been freshly dredged, and the dredgings had been dumped on the bank. We hammered our mooring pins into this surface and tied the boat up but, as we walked away from the boat, another boat passed by and the wash pulled our pins out of the bank. We then moved the boat up a bit to where the ground was a little firmer. The boat was still there when we came back from the pub, so we must have done a better job at the second attempt.
Evening : Rowington. We passed through Kingswood and on to The Grand Union Canal. We stopped at The Tom O'the Woods at Rowington where we ate, and drank a load of Morland's Old Speckled Hen. Oddly, Pete says he can recall wearing his wellies to the pub. It had been very wet and his trainers were soaked through, so they were left to dry out on top of the hot engine on the boat. It was next morning that the boat would not start, but it wasn't the fault of Pete's trainers.
Morning : The breakdown ! In the morning, the boat would not start. Colin phoned the boatyard on his new-fangled mobile phone thingy. Meanwhile, Chris & Jennifer decided to walk on to Hatton Locks where we would eventually catch up with them. In doing so, they would both get very wet from all the overhanging vegetation along the towpath.
The man from the boatyard [..henceforth to be known as "Narrowboatrepairman"..] duly arrived, and after a bit of tinkering, got us going again. The problem turned out to be a faulty battery, which he swapped-out for a new one. Although we were now moving again, due to the delay and the time taken to get down the Hatton flight, it meant we were now running late for lunch.
Lunch : Cape of Good Hope, Cape Locks. We arrived at Cape Locks only just in time for last orders. Pete did a very smart reverse parking manoeuvre while Colin leapt off the boat and ran over the lock gate arriving in The Cape of Good Hope pub at 14:50, just as the landlord had called last orders. We managed to get two pints each of Judge's Old Gavel Bender (4.8%). Although he was about to close, the landlord did let us buy another round just on 15:00, and he allowed us to finish it at our leisure after he had shut.
Evening : Warwick. We spent the evening in Warwick. We went for a meal and then went to The Tilted Wig. It later transpired that we had moored somewhere close to John Barlass's house without even realising.
