No blog posts for the last two nights. We have been doing some long days to make up some time, so evenings have been more about snoozing in the armchair than blogging. Friday was mainly the Atherstone Flight on the Coventry Canal. Yesterday, was Fradley Junction, Great Hayward and the return to the Trent and…
Best laid plans …
Well that didn’t go to plan. No post yesterday because not much happened. That’s not true. Stuff happened. Just not the stuff we wanted to happen. We chugged on to the end of the Ashby past the Globe Inn that we didn’t have dinner in and through the Snarestone Tunnel. We got rid of some…
Return to the Ashby
The last 2 days have involved more shopping, only 1 lock, but 3 different canals, and one of them was new to Heather. We left our mooring between Hillmorton and Rugby yesterday, heading for the Tesco store near the canal in Rugby. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as toilet shopping, but necessary all the same. …
Retail therapy – canal style
A second attempt at Watford, 3 different canals, another tunnel and some retail therapy at Braunston have made for a packed day. We got going early to get down the locks at Watford. A broken paddle meant we didn’t make it down yesterday. It was fixed really quickly but by then it was raining so…
2 Tunnels and a Staircase
Last night we moored above Foxton Locks, having made our way through late in the day. As I mentioned yesterday, we had 20 miles of lock free cruising today on the summit level, before reaching the locks at Watford. So no locks, but glorious remote countryside and two tunnels at Husbands Bosworth and Crick. The…
Foxton Flight
A cloudy day with only occasional hints of sun. It seemed that every time I took my waterfproof off, it started to rain, so I left it on. Then, of course, I cooked because the sun came out. This morning was mainly about negotiating the last few wide locks climbing up to the Foxton flight.…
Lufbra, Leicester and Rain
Yesterday morning, we left Kegworth Deep Lock, and it immediately started raining. It carried on raining until Loughborough. So only one photo, looking back at this impressive waterside house. Which is a shame, because there are some really beautiful wide stretches of the River Soar north of Loughborough. We stopped in Loughborough for shopping and…
Wide locks and wider rivers
This end of the Trent and Mersey sometimes feels like a motorway compared to the Macclesfield Canal. It is wider and deeper, but that’s nothing compared to what was coming later today. The first lock of the day at Stenson, was our first wide lock of this trip. These last few locks on the T&M…
Broken Gates, Branston and Beer
We got a much earlier start today. It wasn’t planned. We were both awake, so we decided to get going. We passed through Alrewas and onto a short section of the River Trent. The flow was reasonably high but nothing like we experienced in the winter on the Kennet. There are several side channels…
The Ring begins
For us, the Leicester Ring begins at Fradley Junction. It has taken until late today for us to get to it. Yesterday I wrote that we were aiming for a favourite spot at Tixall Wide. We had already heard that there were no mooring spots at Great Hayward. That didn’t bode well. Tixall Wide is…