Nuneaton

Today's Canal : Coventry

We awoke early not only to a bright blue sky with already warm sunshine, but also to the sounds of passing boats. By the time we left our overnight mooring just before 8 o'clock, 4 or 5 boats were already ahead of us!

The recently harvested field alongside us had brilliant red poppies between the crop and the canal.

The boatyard at Grendon (a opart of Narrowcraft, based at Alvecote just a little further back) seems to specialise in restoring former working boats.

Our aim was to reach Hinckley by the end of the day, leaving tomorrow for car shuffle and boat clean. We knew that it would take four train journeys as well as the car ride back. However, we had still not heard back from the marina (can't complain as we rejected their offer before when we thought that we would not get that far!)

Atherstone Botton Lock 11

After a short run we reached the bottom of the Atherstone Flight of eleven locks. We anticipated that this might take a couple of hours to complete but we soon discovered otherwise! Not only was one of the boats just a head in the flight rather slow, the locks themselves are slow to fill (although quick to empty).

Lock 9

After an hour we had still only completed three - our normal expectation would have been at least five, usually six.

Lock 5

Whilst we were waiting for two boats ahead of us to go through lock 5, Christine popped to the nearby Co-Op supermarket, returning by the time Mike had taken the boat up just one lock.

Bywash weirs are generally inconspicuous and not at all interesting but in some places the original engineers opted for designs that are delightful in themselves.

Lock 2

At Lock 2, a volunteer lock keeper was tidying up the grass verge and was more than happy to chat whilst we waited. he even asked us to email him the photo we took of this lock!

This flight once worked with side ponds as a means of reducing the amount of water consumed - they have long since been abandoned for this purpose but some have new decorations!

Atherstone Top Lock 1

 Finally, we arrived at the top lock which we left more than three hours after starting the flight. Must be the longest time we have ever taken over 11 locks in a flight! Whilst we were there a CaRT surveyor was measuring the stop plank grooves. Although they are gradually introducing the adjustable aluminium type, they still continue with wooden ones elsewhere and several stoppages are planned for the end of the year in this flight and they need to ensure that there are sufficient planks available. He seemed to be be pleased to explain what he was up to - other boaters were simply ignoring him!

After leaving the lock we soon realised that there was a really long queue of boats waiting to come down. Frustration was palpable and boats just arriving did not seem to know what to do.

Hartshill

It remained a very pleasant day but we needed to press on. Christine baked off some bread as we came through Hartshill, a former maintenance depot, and was starting to prepare bacon to fill the baguettes when we arrived at Springwood Haven Marina, a mile outside Nuneaton. We Had tried to contact the place in Hinkley but there was no reply to the phone nor an email. Although it is a bit pricier than some places we thought it worth sorting things out now rather than end up with a problem late evening. A complication is that there is a boat festival at Shackerstone this weekend and the Ashby Canal is expected to be quite busy. All the listed moorings near Hinckley are 48hr only.

Springwood Haven Moorings

Having booked our slot from tomorrow we pushed across the canal to the towpath side to moor up for the rest of the day. There we remained, except for a similar trip back across to the marina shop for choc ices just before they closed!

Some time was needed to check out tomorrow's logistics. The down side is that it is over a mile walk down the towpath to a bus stop on the outskirts of the town (or may be 40 minutes walk to the train station). In addition, we were told that sat navs sometimes direct drivers to the wrong side of the canal for the marina's post code! Another early start tomorrow as the train leaves at 9 am!

6.6 Miles - 11 locks