With some wetter weather forecast for later in the week it seemed a good time for a fairly long journey. After leaving our Brinklow mooring at 9am we cruised further up the North Oxford Canal until its end at the 1foot stop lock at Hawkesbury Junction where it joins the Coventry Canal.
The purpose of the lock was to stop water being "stolen" from the older Coventry Canal by the Oxford Canal - 200 years ago each canal was owned by a different company. Despite its small size the lock is a bit of a bottleneck. We were 3rd in a queue waiting to go down. After passing through the lock there is a hairpin turn through a bridge to get onto the Coventry Canal. With a number of onlookers watching I was pleased to be able to negotiate the turn smoothly without stopping the boat or hitting the bank.
We only stayed on the Coventry Canal for about 3 miles to Marston Junction where we turned northwards on to the Ashby Canal, the main objective of our trip. The canal is 22 miles long currently ending just beyond the vilage of Snarestone. The final section to the coalfields for which it was built was closed because of mining subsidence. So it's a simple journey there and back, but we are hoping to see some of the canal's wildlife, in particular water voles.
We have moored about a mile beyond the start of the Ashby near the edge of Nuneaton
11.9 miles,
1 lock, i swing bridge,5 hours 10 mins cruising
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