Sunday 6th August 2006
Wootton Wawen - Stratford-upon-Avon (7 miles, 18 locks)
Jen and I worked Odd Lock on our own and then the rest of the family reluctantly surfaced in time for the remaining seventeen locks down to Stratford.
We stopped at Wilmcote and ate breakfast sitting on the towpath and then walked into the village to visit the shop. We set off again, following a boat owned by an elderly couple. At Wilmcote Locks, Rosemary went on ahead to prepare the next lock each time for the other boat, but we soon caught up with the boat in front of them.
We reached Bancroft Basin by late lunchtime and were surprised to find that most of the river moorings were taken. We passed through the lock onto the river and filled with water at the water-point. There was one space left next to us, but we decided to carry on down the river to see what else was free. There was nothing, so we quickly turned round and moored back in that last space next to the mooring for the water-point. I visited the Tourist Information Centre to buy UANT permits for two nights and was served by the same woman who had found the procedure so complicated the last time. At least she would have had some practice over the last twelve months, but no such luck - she was even more confused this time...
We had a lazy afternoon sitting in the park by the river and reading in the glorious sunshine, although it was so hot we had to retire to the shade of the tree by the boat moored behind us. We chatted with the owners and commented on the beautiful paintwork on Harmony. It had cost £70 per foot to have their boat repainted but it made Hawksmoor's paintwork look thin and weedy by comparison - which it is. I won't embarrass the company that fitted-out Hawksmoor by mentioning their name and asking why a boat costing in excess of £100,000 was delivered with just two coats of thinly sprayed paint applied in damp conditions.
At Lucy's suggestion, we ate out at The Garrick again, since there was a gorgeous French waiter there last time - her words, not mine. I had been slightly disappointed by the food last time, but this time it was excellent, although Lucy was not enamoured by the surly English lads we were served by.
At 9pm, we wandered across the park to where the RSC had erected a giant cinema screen suspended from a crane for one of a series of free open-air film shows. Tonight's film was to be Henry V made in 1944 and winning an Oscar for Laurence Olivier for his "outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director". Unfortunately, we were tired, and having dozed off several times, we gave up after an hour and a half just as the rain started, leaving the more hardy cinema buffs to sit through the full two and a quarter hours.