Today was all about doing the Atherstone Flight. But, first we had to get there. That meant starting early. I wanted to give myself plenty of time for the flight. To take it steady. I learnt that from the Napton flight, and there I was helped down most of it by a CRT volunteer lock keeper, because it was’t busy. Now it’s Bank Holiday Weekend and there are definitely more boats about, so I could’t expect that again. The Atherstone flight is longer as well.

Time to leave the Ashby for now – I’ll be back. Turning right at Marston Junction, back onto the Coventry Canal, Heron passed through Nuneaton first. From the canal, Nuneaton appears to be dominated by allotments.

With the occasional time machine.

And an encounter with a historic steam narrowboat, Laplander. Although, it now appears to have a backup diesel engine, which it was using today.

Then it was was back out into countryside. I have always found this stretch, between Nuneaton and Atherstone, to be very pleasing. The canal winds its way through a somewhat more hilly area. On the way passing the old facilities and wharf at Hartshill.

Then we were at Atherstone Top Lock and the fun began. That is what you can call emptying the toilet. My sudden turn onto the service wharf surprised the lock keeper, who was preparing the lock for me. And it surprised the boat behind me, who was intending to turn round there. He persisted, despite Heron massively restricting the space available. Yet another bump. Had a quick chat with the lock keeper whilst taking on water. He doesn’t think the canal is that busy yet this year. He has;t seen as many hire boats as usual. Then we started down the locks. I resolved to do a photographic countdown of the 11 locks. As you can see below, I managed it, apart from lock 10. It had been repainted recently but the numbers have not yet been reinstated.

In lock 3, I did, sort of, misjudge how long the long was. I’m sure it was shorter, or perhaps the boat grew in length. We had too many of those bowls anyway.

With the Atherstone flight finally behind us, we cruised on for a little while through the gently rolling countryside typical of this area. Finally I moored up just short of Tamworth. The mooring is next to a wooded hill that’s somewhat larger than the surrounding terrain. We went to explore. Sam deserved it, having been very patient all day. This lovely wooded hill turned out to be a reclaimed mining spoil heap and is now part of the Pooley Country Park. Now it has footpaths, mountain bike trails and has been topped off by “Gold Leaf: Buried Sunshine”.

Followed a different path down. Turned out to be one of those mountain bike trails. They get quite steep. That was fun!

Just over 2 weeks into this adventure – it’s time for a list of top ten things you need to know about boating single-handed.