Climbed up the Stairway To Heaven

Up fairly early as Sharon was off dog walking.  Had a leisurely breakfast and then went and did the shopping so Sharon can keep going whilst I am in hospital this week.  Really needed to do something today though and I needed to be near water.  Had thought about going to the seaside, Portsmouth is the nearest sea and that is 2 hours away.  Didn't fancy 4 hours in the car (or the cost of the fuel) so had to compromise and go for a nice bit of canal.

The picture is taken from the middle, the lower locks are further apart than these higher ones.  They call it the Stairway To Heaven.  It is a piece of 1930s engineering which replaced much earlier narrow locks.  I reckon it is a bit of a folly, it must have taken years to build it, it was finished in 1934 and the canals fell out of use in the 1950s.  But it is an impressive folly.  21 locks in total with a cafe at the top.  So a bit of a walk and coffee and cake, great way to spend a couple of hours, got some daylight, took some photos and generally had a nice time.  

Off to Hotel Churchill in the morning.