Bottom Atherstone flight

 

Last night we ate in The Anchor and I think its probably the best pub meal we have ever had, the beef was so tender that the knife slipped straight through it.

We were moored back by the old railway bridge which was very quiet overnight, but be warned, they open for business in the yard opposite at 6am so I am not sure what time they start work.
Again we set off about 10 am heading for Atherstone to deposit some second hand books and buy more, also a trip to Aldi. On the way we passed the Hartshill yard which looked to being used more.

A little further on by the winding hole CRT were manually breaking up and removing the sunken cruiser that has been there for months, pulling it out a small piece at a time.

Passing the Rother Group moorings another sad sight, the steel work still looks straight even if all the paint was burnt off.

There were a few boats moored at Atherstone and even with the mooring restriction due to the demolition of the hat factory  there was plenty of room for us. Some moorings are out of use,all the rings, the Armco beyond them is fine.
I shot a short video of the nipper carefully removing parts of the upper floor. anything that fell over the canal was caught in the nets on the pontoons

   

We stayed moored in Atherstone to eat lunch before setting off, we were hoping that a boat may have come up in that time, but the last one we saw went down. We moved off at 2 PM, the demolition team were back at work unlike any Volockies on the flight.

 

We had mixed luck, turning the fires two and last four. Having lock 4 turned while we were in 3, that was after he opened the bottom paddles not noticing the top gate was wide open and the crew at lock 5 walked back and closed the top gate as I was dropping down in 4. The rest went well meeting boats in handy places. At one lock there was a large flush of wild garlic on the offside by the bridge.

The levels in the flight were quite good, only between 7 and 8 was a bit low but was full of moored boats who were all afloat OK.
Once we cleared the bottom lock we pulled in and moored for the night   

Today’s Journey 5

 

   miles with 11 locks in 3½ hours

Anchor bridge

Well after the cold miserable morning yesterday, this morning it was well into double figures before we set off and hit a high of 21° this afternoon. 
We hadn’t gone a ¼ of a mile before I was in the mud. we met another boat by the long term moorings so I pulled over towards the row of moored boats and was about 8’ from them when we started to lean. I guess the ones along there never leave their mooring.
At bridge 24 a CRT chappie was hard at work covering the graffiti with what looked like black bitumastic paint.

A little further on some months back there was a minor landslide and CRT attempted to close the towing path but some people had other ideas.

The slip is actually very old and a few years back the towing path was raised with cement bags, but that has now succumbed to the water, but it suits the Heron as a fishing platform. You can see where people have walked around it. 
We met a couple of boat just before Suttons Stop so the lock was just about in our favour and with no one coming the other way it was out, round and up the Coventry canal in one. The sunk boat that was just beyond the narrows has now been removed.
There was a lot less traffic on the Coventry and a chap painting his boat warned us of a floating tree trunk opposite Boot Wharf which was useful. The Electric charity trip boat, Hargraves was out, so that was something else to watch for. We met them just before Springwood Haven.
CRT have now closed the offside long term moorings at Tuttle Hill and removed the signs.

Of course you cant come this way without a photo of the Telegraph Pole.

It looks as if someone has recently attached a surveying reflector to it, not sure if that is a good or bad sign.

We carried on and moored for the night at Anchor Bridge with a view to eating in the Anchor Pub tonight.

Today’s Journey

 

14 miles with 1 lock in 5 hours.

Coombes Field Farm, Brinklow

Well it was still raining when we went to bed and we had over ¼” in total.
This morning was over cast and cold, only 8°C when we set off just after 10am. The boat we saw yesterday towing a wreck backwards is moored almost in the Bridge hole by the Barley Mow making the bridge/bend blind. As we passed the water point a boat was getting ready to leave and followed us until we moored up. We met lots of boats and a fisherman in All Oaks described it as the M25. Someone has erected a bird house by the All Oak moorings and several boats are moored to the new piling, despite it still being fenced off.

Work is finally underway to repair the road bridge just before Easenhall Cutting which has been in bit of a state for some years.

The grass is taking hold at t e site of the two landslides in the cutting, but the towing path surface still needs attention, especially the northern on with deep mud.

Due to passing the moored boats at Stretton Wharfe and meeting a boat coming the other way the boat following caught us up, so Diana was able to leave the boat yard swing bridge open for them, as it turned out a hire boat came the other way so he was tasked with closing it. We didn’t go much further, only to just beyond Grimes Bridge 26 where we moored for the night.
A little after 3PM the sun came out and the weather turned much better.

 

Today’s Journey 7 miles with no locks in 2½ hours

Brownsover

We set off from home about 10 am in bright sun shine that continued all the way to the mooring with the temperature hitting 22°C.

 

We stopped for lunch in Crick at the Wheatsheaf, we decide to have the oldies lunch, but what a lunch it was, I can only imagine whet the evening meals must be like.

 

Once at the boat it was good to see loads of parking spots near the access to our pontoon to unload the car. By the time we were ready to leave the the sky was full of black clouds and the breeze picked up a bit.
For several months an abandon boat was moored offside under bridge 77A the M45 motorway bridge, last time we were out it was moored outside Barby Marina, today we met it about  half a mile north of the marina being attempted to tow it backwards with a smaller narrowboat with no windows.
Just passed the Waterside Pub we saw the first of two clutches of ducklings.

No one around at Hillmorton top lock but the nearside was almost full and we spotted an ex-working boat coming up in the middle lock so the bottom locks should have been full, but one was half empty and the other fully empty. It made me smile that the CRT had to get a map of their system from IWA.

We planned to moor a short way passed Kent Road Bridge but all the spots we had on mind on were taken and I didn’t want tree sap dripping on us. By now the weather had cleared nicely so we carried on past Clifton Cruisers and the aqueduct before mooring for the night. Half an hour latter there were spots of rain. this was followed by thunder and lightning, as I post this its still raining.

Today’s Journey

5 miles with 3 locks in 2¼ hours

Home Moorings

More rain over night  but dry when we were ready to leave with light winds. We have seen quite a few boats on the move today. We passed this group of five ex-working boats that I mentioned yesterday.

CRT volunteers were hard at work cutting back the offside undergrowth along the puddle bank, maybe CRT are nervous after the Llangollen incident.

We stopped at Braunston Turn to fill with water before heading up the North Oxford canal passing this wide Beam cruiser moored on a narrow canal rather close to the A5 bridge. probably the narrowest part of the canal.

We stopped for diesel at Dunchurch Pools Marina at 97p/L I wonder how much more it will be next month. As we were leaving I spotted a murmur of starlings in the distance, unfortunately they didn’t go it again but the flock flew right over our heads.

Back out on the canal we headed back to the marina, Since we were last this way someone has removed the boat that has been moored to the offside railings under the M45 for months, possibly a year. Back at the marina one last job before mooring toilet tank pump out. This is a DIY operation at our marina but we have a very good pump that really sucks, then back in the berth before packing up and coming home.
That’s it until the next time.

Today’s Journey

 

7¾ miles with no locks in 3½ hours.

Flecknoe Fields Farm

What a day/ night we have had we have had almost 9mm of today. It was fine drizzle when we set off and heavy before we reached Napton Junction where we turned right down to Calcutt Locks. We winded just above the lock and needles to say the wind decided it may as well blow just as we were half way round. A chap taking water kindly gave the bows a kick which was sufficient to complete the manoeuvre. While we were doing this what looked  like a boat under tuition was coming up the lock, but we were well away before they exited. 
Back at Napton Junction and the sun came out, we were retracing our steps back to Flecknoe for the night. Although the sky where we were was blue it

was a bit different in the distance and we hadn’t moored up long before we had a shower of real rain.
The two highlights of the day, in this short journey we passed 7 ex working boats and this must be the

bridge of the day, if you looked from this angle you would think twice before walking over it, let alone taking a tractor over.

Today’s Journey

7½ miles with no locks in 2¾ hours

Puddle Bank Braunston

Not such a nice day today, no sun and fully overcast with rain forecast for the afternoon. Boat movement was a bit sparse meeting 3 at Hillmorton and then one towing another on the Puddle Banks. CRT have done lots of remedial work to the tow paths but most out of town ones are still very muddy.

Earlier this year I posted photos of unusual exhaust covers so I thought I would add this one I saw today.

 

At Hillmorton Locks the volunteers were out in force cutting back the grass edges at the locks etc. Its a pity CRT didn’t give one of them a bucket of grease, Diana couldn’t wind a couple of the paddles even with her long throw windlass and that’s unlike her. Just above the lock we passed a boat with a very short butty, the builder of the butty unbeknown to the owner painted a pair of doors on the back.

We stopped at Midland Chandlers as I wanted a new light fitting for the bathroom, They had some on the shelf and although they are marked down to £15 they are actually still £38 I think he said, as I put it back on the shelf. Some of the shelves are bare as they are not restocking. They had been on clearance and I bought 4 last time I was there. We left there and headed along the Grand Union/Oxford Canal to the puddle banks mooring just beyond the winding hole.

Today’s Journey

 

12½ miles with 3 locks in 4½ hours

Newbold

The weather just keeps getting better, a few more boats on the move today. A lone CRT man is hard at work painting the M69 bridge, when we saw him he was just walking back from his truck packed at the social club with another tin of paint.

This was one of the brightest bushes we have seen this year so far, it looked great in the warm sunshine.

The water is well up again so at the small bank slippage the towpath is back under water, CRT have closed this section some months ago now.

This is all that’s left of the Diwali light display in Newbold Tunnel, goodness knows how many thousands of pounds it cost to instal only to be left to rot away.

We moored for the night in Newbold at the first visitor moorings with rings, it unusual for the ring spacing to work out right but these ones are spot on for us.

Today’s Journey

 

9 miles with no locks in 3 hours

Halfway Sutton Stop to Ansty

Last night we ate at Turmeric Gold in Spon Street, somewhere we will definitely visit again. Well worth the walk. Its probably the nicest Indian restaurant we have ever been in. a really lovely setting.

 

   
After last nights dinner I couldn’t do a full English at Playwrights justice this morning so we had breakfast onboard as usual. Gorety is much more of a café than a shop now but thankfully they still sell cakes to take away. Next time we come we will arrive early enough for lunch there.
There is major work going on at the boaters services in Coventry basin and they have dug a trench out to the pump out point with safety barriers all around it.

A short way up the canal there is a whole yard of Unimogs, they have been there sometime as some are turning green.

Last time we came down here I noticed that like Birmingham some of the bridges had ports for fire hoses to be lowered into the canal, unlike Birmingham, Coventry’s have been bricked up.

Some time last year we passed under this bridge and the length of PVC guttering supporting cables had slipped down. I fixed it back but didn’t rehang the cables, this lead to CRT issuing a navigation warning and months of wrangling who’s responsibility the cable was. This trip the guttering was down again, so we stopped and I refitted it and also put the cables back on. Must have saved the five grand.

This has changed since we came down the arm yesterday, much greener today, the season is definitely changing now and it 15°C this afternoon.

At bridge 6 we shopped for Diana to visit Lidl, it gave me the opportunity to recalibrate our water tank gauge, this can only be done with an empty tank and this morning while it still indicated a quarter we ran out.While I was waiting I also reported the shopping trollies to CRT as they are right by the bridge. Too much for me to pull out and take to the bins.

As soon as she returned we were on our way, opposite Exhall Basin we spotted some wild life, a couple of Brown Rats, not surprising with the amount of food people are throwing down for the birds.

At Hawkesbury Junction we turned onto the Oxford Canal passing through the lock and stopping for water, I pas please to see that gauge was near enough correct when the tank filled, so that little job looks a success. On our way again and the offside field under the powerline pylons is flooded as usual, the only time I have seen it dry was last summer.

We carried on, meeting the firs boat  coming towards us for two days and moored for the night on a shorth stretch of piling about half a mile before Ansty. This is probably the furthest spot from the motorway along here.

Today’s Journey

 

8 miles with one lock in 3¾ hours.