Early starts and long days.

21st Dec 

 Gosh, I can't remember the last time we got away early, 8 am, we pulled pins and crept past the line of boats. Our reasoning was to get through Braunston Tunnel without meeting anyone. This tunnel is notorious for the 'kinky bits' and sods law says one always meets another boat at these points. Anyway, it was a relief to look through the entrance and see a small pinprick of daylight at the other end and not a headlight!

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A kinky bit

  

Took a tad under 20 minutes to get through. Ian was at the helm, and he certainly didn't hang around!

 

 At Braunston locks, I was told that we had just missed a boat going down. Oh well, maybe that person would see us and hang fire at the next lock until we came, and yes, that was exactly what happened.

Top lock

No  one was with it, strange, but turned out he had gone down to set the next lock while waiting for us.

Beautiful staffs

 

We only managed two locks with him. In the next lock a boat had just entered, must have been moored in one of the pounds.  Our 'locking buddy' jumped ship, so to speak, left us behind and went down with them.

 Braunston had plenty of spaces had we wanted to stop, still too early to do that, and I was determined to get to Rugby for a last shop before Christmas.

 

 So onwards, down the flight of 3 at Hillmorton Locks.

 

  And then the long cruise to Rugby. Only spaces at the end of a line of boats were found, the towpath was almost impossible to walk on, thick squelchy mud which tried sucking your shoes from your feet! Walking to Tesco was a challenge, coming back with heavy bags was even worse! Having cruised for over 6 hours, the decision was made to stay overnight, not ideal as it was very noisy, a roundabout right opposite the mooring and everyone rushing in cars to get those last-minute gifts.  Thank goodness it was Sunday and the shops closed early.

22nd December

A favourite place of mine is Old Oak's Wood. I have seen this in every season now, but a wish to see it in the snow. Maybe one day, but due to climate change, I'm not holding my breath.

New moorings past the wood

Anyway, it was another early start, the wind had picked up and a real icy chill in the air. As mentioned above, Old Oak Wood was passed. We reached a section on a long straight where slippage had occurred a year or two ago, blocking the canal and towpath. It appears that the towpath is now permanently shut along this section. There are gates on one end and Harris fencing on the other, although we did notice that people have been climbing the bank to get around. Another observation. Seen on the slope before the slippage, loads of rabbit holes and one of the culprits in plain sight! As much as I hate to see wildlife removed from their homes, this is one place where more slippage could occur if they are not evicted.

Where the slippage was. A massive amount of work has been done to make it stable.

 

All day, not another boat on the move, but typical...we meet one at Stretton swing bridge!

At Sutton Stop, the original elsan was out of action, but CRT had put in a temporary one. Massive mistake made, though.... no water to rinse the cassettes! If we had known, a bucket with canal water would have been used to do the job, and rinsing could have been done that way. As it was, we had to put a dirty cassette back, not ideal and not pleasant to the nose!

Sutton Stop lock. A rise of about 6 inches.

Bringing FS into the lock, a huge branch came in with me. It had to be removed!

 It's usually me who does the turn onto the Coventry Canal, Ian shuts the gate and walks to where I pick him up on the narrow section, but today....a very nice gentleman offered to close the gate, so no excuse for him not to do it. I relinquished the tiller and waited to see how he did.

 

Blast...it was a textbook manoeuvre, no reverse required. Is there nothing my 'man that can' can't do?

So we did make the Ashby Canal. Another brilliant turn made by Ian, I stayed at the bow looking for water voles. In the past, I have been lucky, but not today. 

 

Just past bridge 2, we found a lovely quiet mooring. Tomorrow we hope to make Shackerstone, our destination for Christmas. It's a good 18 miles away, and the Ashby has always been shallow in places, slowing us down, so there is no guarantee of making it. We will see!

And seen on route,

Bank collapse and towpath closed before bridge 19 if I remember rightly