Ansty Tuesday September 3 2019

Day : Tuesday
Date : 3 September 2019
Start : 0940 hrs
Finish : 1545 Ansty bridge 12

I have uploaded our proposed route to Canal Planer AC https://canalplan.eu/journey/12200_cp if anyone wants to see where we are likely to be. It gets updated with actual position each night.

It was much quieter than expected last night and we didn't hear much of the trains at all, tonight its the Motorway between the M6 and M69

There were quite a few boats on the move this morning so we were away in reasonable time. A boat had just passed but the Hillmorton locks are paired and although the boat ahead were already setting their lock when we arrived we were able to draw the paddles on the second one for them. CRT have carried out, I hope, a temporary repair to the middle lock beam, this is the third beam failure I have heard of this trip. There was a Volockie at the bottom lock who assisted with the bottom gate as Diana had shot off with the rubbish. The new housing runs well down beyond the lock and a new road to serve the development is being built, this crosses the canal just before Clifton Boats on a smart new bridge with brick facings. It has the bridge name and number cast into the concrete lintel, so I hope CRT don't plan to change it any time soon. There is what looks like a Gyrocopter sat on the wharf at Clifton Cruisers, maybe its a new venture they are going into.

A family, well maybe mum, calf and friends were enjoying a drink in the canal but were not impressed with the slight wash we made so went off to join the rest of the herd.

The compulsory stop at Rugby was made to visit Tesco where my Tesco credit card was rejected, a phone call gave an explanation, they sent me a new one 2 weeks ago and have cancelled the old ones, so its the debit card now until we get home.

There were very few boats moored at Newbold and thankfully the tunnel was quite dry, this is a very large tunnel with a towpath on both sides. many years ago they fitted coloured lights in the tunnel but over the years these have been slowly failing and now non work at all.

Rose Narrowboat have an unusual boat moored there, its an old spoon dredger from when canals were dredged by hand. One man would work the winch that had a chain running down to the spoon while another man would be on the T handle of the spoon at the end of the long shaft directing it into the silt. Between them they would drag it into the silt and then up to tip it into the boat.

As we approached the famous Ansty "No Mooring" area the offside appears to be subsiding, this is where one of the old in filled original loops of the canal joined the new straight cutting all these old loops are visible on Waterway Routes digital maps. We carried on a bit longer until we were about half way between the M6 and M69 hoping this will be the quietest spot, since we have been here another boater has joined us on this short length of piling.

Today's Journey 13¼ Miles 3 Locks in 5 hours