Ouch, that hurt!

 No idea why I should be awake at 4.30 am, blooming annoying though 'cos sleep eluded me from that moment onwards. An hour later I tried to sidle down the bed without disturbing Ian but was really quite unsuccessful, he awoke and first thing that was said "Are you off to put kettle on?"

Having not planned an early start, that is exactly what happened anyway. The morning was calm, hardly a ripple on the water to spoil the reflections, perfect for taking a photo.

Towpath outside the stern of FS.

Rugby visitor moorings fill up fast and when two boats came past yesterday late afternoon looking for somewhere to stop, I could see the disappointment on their faces. I did wonder if they found somewhere further along.  Just beyond the road bridge would have been the perfect spot but for some reason, when the new footpath was resurfaced a few years ago, signs went up forbidding any mooring along a long stretch of the towpath. I could never understand why, this would have been ideal for a Tesco shop or the Harvester and Bell pub. So when I noticed those two boats had ignored the rules and had moored, I actually said to myself, good on you. In fact if we hadn't found a space on the visitor moorings then we would have done the self same thing! There must be a reason for the no mooring signs but for the life of me I couldn't see why the visitor moorings shouldn't continue further.

 

I did notice a couple of the signs had been tampered with. The no mooring plate had gone, which left the two arrows but a few had been left on the post much further along.

This is what was supposed to be on every sign.

The section of canal by the Barley Mow. what a right pig. Almost an S bend, one first has to negotiate a blind bridge and, oh look....fancy meeting yet another boat!

 

Then those moored boats by the pub making for a very restricted channel width, plus the overgrown offside vegetation, again line of sight was bad. Almost completing the S and immediately coming up to Newbold Tunnel portal, we kept fingers crossed no boat would appear

 

Old Oak Wood has always been a lovely place to stop, the muddy and narrow towpath though, made our decision to carry on towards Ansty easy. The greens of the Oak tree leaves were beginning to turn Autumnal. Not so wonderful was all those underneath the water attaching themselves to the prop!

 

Arriving at Rose Narrowboats with its small pedestrian footbridge spanning the canal, Ian did the honours today. His knee wasn't giving him quite as much gyp as yesterday and to be fair, the bridge is ever so easy to open. I did offer but he feels opening bridges, be it lift or swing, is his job.

 

We stopped before Ansty, just through bridge 26. Of course. as been the way of today, the bow of yet another boat appeared. Ian was steering this time and sounded the horn, we had entered first after all. Consequently the chap went into reverse but in doing so ended up on the offside. Oops, best move over to the left then!

Immediately after the bridge piling was seen. Two boats already moored but enough room for us to get in behind the cruiser. The towpath wasn't too bad either, well not quite as muddy as some but even so, shoes had to be removed before stepping into the boat.

I went to take the usual mooring photo and for my trouble had this go through the sole and into my foot. Ouch....that really hurt, no wonder cyclists hate when hedges are cut along the towpath, plenty of punctures no doubt.  Mind you, that's one way of slowing them down. 😀