From Bodymoor Heath Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, to Alvecote on the Coventry Canal and on to Dadlington, Ashby Canal
We left the Birmngham and Fazeley canal at Fazeley junction and turned right, onto the Coventry Canal. After good fish and chips, plus a heavy hail storm in Fazeley, we started off down the Coventry Canal in sunshine once again. We spotted a moored narrow boat named Water Avens, and this immediately rang bells as one of Bob's brothers family had lived on a boat of this name for several years. As often happens whilst waiting to use a lock you get talking to other boaters, and sure enough Water Avens caught us up, and low and behold the present owners bought this boat 10 years ago from Bob' s sister in law! We exchanged a few experiences and then moved on.
The next morning we encountered Water Avens again but grim faces greeted us - their cat had gone on an out of character walkabout, the owners looked bereft, and of course just could not bring themselves to move on.
Quite a few locks punctuated our way along the Coventry canal, and at one lock we caught another boat going our way and as is the usual practice you help each other along. After a few minutes a lady from the other boat appeared and apologised for not getting on with the lock, but she was inside the boat ironing! and ironing doyleys at that! Mad!
Our passage through Nuneaton was littered with so much floating rubbish and bank after bank strewn with unsightly plastic rubbish of all types, it really does make you question if there is any point in our diligently recycling our small amount of household plastic.
Now we have taken a left turn and onto the Ashby Canal, totally rural and no locks! A very quiet and peaceful waterway reminiscent of the Mon and Brec here and there, narrow and with overhanging trees, but also opening out to wider stretches. Many, many moored boats here alongside and in marinas, but all so peaceful and tranquil. We moored up in a lovely spot after yet another lovely day and were just enjoying a cup of tea and reading the paper when THUMP - a passing boat hit us nearly broadside! Apparently his throttle got stuck in reverse, goodness knows what he was doing - so we do have the odd moment of stress, you know!
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