Thursday, week 5

As we moved away from our mooring, under a warm sky, we decided to cut this cruise short. We were due to turn into the Ashby Canal today, and spend three or four days doing that 44 mile return trip, but, in view of the need to get our generator fixed, and to have a consistently good internet signal at a time when we both need to use the web a fair bit, we thought it prudent to return now to the marina. This will mean missing the trip into Coventry, too.

However, a cruise up and down the Ashby, and up and down the end of the Coventry Canal would make a good 10 to 14-day trip in its own right, so we'll get that done later in the year - no loss.

Moving on from our overnight mooring, we immediately passed an old BW yard, apparently now unused, but retaining much of its original charm.

Looking back at our mooring from the BW yard.

Thursday's travel was entirely without locks. In fact, apart from the very shallow one we will pass through just around the corner from where we are now at Hawkesbury Junction, there are only a handful of locks left to do on the rest of the trip - Hillmorton, Braunston and Watford. The canal meandered down towards Nuneaton through lovely countryside and woodland, very river-like at times in its breadth and general "mood".

Nuneaton is a disgrace, however, with a lot of rubbish in the water and on the banks, and graffiti on any available surface. The town itself is not inviting, and we moved through as fast as we could.

Just beyond the furthest reaches of the town, we were warned by several boaters of a sunken boat almost blocking the canal. That it is there at all is something of a disgrace, but it's unacceptable that it's allowed to be such a hazard. There was barely space for Grace to slide our 7' wide Kantara past, and that was through a lot of assorted detritus.

Exiting from the ugly sprawl of Nuneaton, however, we were back into attractive views, and passed the entrance to the Ashby-de-la-Zouch (its full name) Canal, at Marston Junction - we'll be back!

On the outskirts of the town of Bedworth, we passed the very tatty boatyard I wrote about last year,

but I had to take more photos of the amusing additions to the various boaty stuff which litters the place.

Our day's travel ended just beyond the town, at Hawkesbury Junction.

The sky was clear, the evening sunny and warm, and we woke to similar weather this morning. On now, towards Newbold.