24 locks, 12 miles

We were woken up by the creaking and groaning of Derwent6 moving with the sun on one side, and with a frost on the other. The temperature changes were making the bulkhead and timbers move around giving off large cracking noises. We set off at around 9.00am and made our way through a very wet Shrewley tunnel before getting to the top of the twenty one locks of the Hatton flight.

We were lucky enough to meet up with a hire boat with a crew of four going down, after they had filled with water, so we waited for them to finish. It took us about three and a half hours to get down the locks. The weather held out and we carried on through Warwick, till we got to Lidl's, where we topped up with some provisions. After throwing the shopping bags on Derwent6, we walked up to the pub, we felt we deserved it after all those locks. At The Tiller Pin they were doing a Magic Monday offer where you could get a pint for £1.65 and a very generous Rump steak and chips for a fiver. We spent thirteen pounds and came out with very full tummies. We got back to Derwent6 and went through Leamington Spa and it got to that calm sunny evening cruising feeling. We even went through another lock before mooring up. We had to be very careful not to squash these little fellows in the last lock, as worried mother looks on.We ended up doing twenty four locks and twelve miles, a good days work we thought!!!!!

We found a nice quiet spot to moor up in, along side a wood full of bluebells and a field full of pheasants. It started to get a bit chilly so we put a couple of logs on the fire. Soon our heads were hanging out the side doors trying to get some air..... but we weren't cold. We were tired though, so a early night for us we think!!