Brownsover Friday 29 July 2016

We left the moorings at 10 am, we were the last to go. Last night not only were all the visitor moorings full but also the long term moorings as well. We find lots of boats leave around 9am all following each other in convoy and by waiting until 10 am the field has thinned out a lot, it also means that they are at the next popular mooring before you, which was the case today when we reached Brownsover, Rugby. Luckily a chap was about to leave so we waited for him to push off and slipped into his spot.

Several years ago whoever owned the accommodation bridge by The Crown pub decided to demolish it rather than repair it, unfortunately they didn’t do a very good job and the old buttress walls are splitting badly.

We were to meet several boats on our trip south today, a bit of luck at Rose Narowboats as one of the staff swung the bridge open after crossing, it was just passed here that we passed two boats from the London Narrow Boat Project full of kids who had been stocking up with sweets at Rose Narrowboats shop. Rose Narrowboats own a slipway that they use to pull Narrowboats out for blacking and repair work, they have covered the lower end of the slipway with a structure painted in their colours that look like the side of one of their hire boats. We stopped at Armada Boats in Newbold to fill with diesel at 58p/lt before passing through Newbold tunnel and stopping at the water point. This use to be the slowest tap imaginable, but now its been fixed and I didn’t even have time to eat my lunch before the tank was full and we moved on. We didn’t go far only to the visitor moorings as after lunch we needed to visit the Post Office. There use to be waste bins in The Barley Mow car park, but these have now been moved down the road for some reason  to the Barley Barn car park, still owned by the same people.

Just before All Oaks Wood there is a section of canal in a cutting that is susceptible to land slides and you are asked to travel slowly. Part was along a tree fell in many years ago and the stump has never been removed. Over the years CRT and BW before them have hung various signs and buoy on the stump. For some reason it looks as if the stump has decided to start growing again and it must have fell down and been cut off about 15 to 20 years ago.

We carried on to Brownsover a part of Rugby to stop for a shop at Tesco, when we arrived the place was chocker block, but just south of bridge 58 opposite the park a boat was about to pull off, so we were able to slip into their spot. Since we were this way last the water point has now been moved to the park opposite almost where we are moored.

Today’s Journey  9¼ miles in 4¼ hours