We drove up to the boat on Saturday, and the downside was that it was our worst ever journey with long delays or closed roads with every route you tried. On the upside we ended up on minor roads broadly following the line of the southern Grand Union and had lots of glimpses of the canal and the neighbouring villages. We already knew a lot of nice canal side villages, so it was interesting to see that a lot of their neighbours are just as pleasant.
Concluding that our domestic batteries were reaching the end of their useful life, (when the TV and fridge stopped working mid-evening), we decided to stop at Leamington Tesco for the night to get to the shops on Monday. It's hard to miss this shop, and although it looks as though it will be close by, Lidl and the Co-op further to the east are a shorter carry. There used to be room for two or three boats at Tesco but some enterprising soul has cut back a load of vegetation to make more space.
Shame about the rubbish all over the bank though. Monday dawned bright and sunny with lots of joggers and cyclists on the towpath opposite. The lady at Kate Boats pointed us towards Warwickshire Batteries on Birmingham Road, very handy for the Saltisford Arm. They had just what we needed, and even loaned a sack truck to get the batteries across the road. So about £200 lighter, (and 90kg heavier until we dispose of the old ones), we set off up Hatton after an hour or so of wrestling heavy objects in confined spaces. We stopped for the night about halfway up the locks in one of the longer pounds where someone had trimmed the overgrown edges in two places about 58 feet apart.
Tomorrow we'll be off towards Stratford and maybe a few days on the Avon if we have time.
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