Down the Wilmcote flight
Our trip from Wilmcote began with an early departure at tickover as we passed the long line of moored boats but it still didn’t take us too long to reach the top of the Wilmcote flight of locks. The eleven locks are built pretty close together with slightly longer gaps between the third and the fourth and then the eighth and ninth. Sue steered and I locked for a change and despite the fact that we were following another boat (meaning that every lock had to be filled before we could use it), we made good progress and tied between the bottom lock and the A46 road bridge. NB Snipe was just about to ascend the flight and they told us that they had enjoyed a quiet mooring there the night before despite the proximity to the road. Our journey had taken less than two and a half hours so it was still relatively early when we were ready to go for a walk.
Our mooring was very rural but its not too far to reach the Birmingham Road retail park on the edge of Stratford. Our walk took us past Stratford Parkway station and then through Bishopton, a very select area with large houses. A bit of shopping in Tesco and Aldi to keep us going and then the half hour walk back to the boat allowed us to laze in the afternoon sunshine with only the following day’s short hop into Stratford to contemplate.