A little chillier this morning and the canal was steaming. Again we missed a lot of traffic starting early. Just past Stretton Stop there is a dismal cutting and then a short open part with popular moorings. The difficulty was that there was an unbroken line of moored boats round the curve and overgrown vegetation on the offside making passage single file only and no way of seeing what was round the corner. We were lucky. There were no boats coming the other way, but soon after a stream of opposite direction boats. I could imagine the mayhem that would occur if two lines of boats met in the middle. Throw in an inexperienced boater or two and the fun can just be imagined.
This was not the only place where overgrown vegetation is becoming a problem. The picture shows one point where for over 100 yards reeds and overgrown bushes have rendered the canal one way only. Untrimmed vegetation is also obstructing the views on corners in places. The situation has become so gross that I cannot imagine how precisely CRT can go about fixing it, other than in a few hot spots because there is so much generally building up through lack of "stitch in time" and the disposal of trimmings must be a real headache. We stopped at Rugby Tesco for the usual shopping and then proceeded on to Hillmorton. The locks were quiet and we had a chatty volunteer lock-keeper open the bottom lock gates as we approached. We must have been lucky because there has been a lot of traffic. Over 100 boats passed through one day at the weekend apparently.
Single lane traffic here
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