THE ROUTE WE HAVE PLANNED TO TAKE US TO OUR WINTER MOORINGS
After our epic trip on the Thames, we shall rejoin the canal system at Oxford.
Then we shall travel north up the Oxford Canal, meeting friends at a pub
with the delightful name of the Rock of Gibraltar!
We shall pass through such places as
Banbury, Cropredy, Fenny Compton, Napton and, eventually, Braunston.
At Braunston, we shall moor up for a few days and see friends,
get a couple of jobs done on the boat by our boatfitter
and have a meal at one of our favourite pubs, The Admiral Nelson.
Then it will be on again, up the North Oxford Canal, past Rugby and North Coventry
to Hawkesbury Junction, where the Oxford Canal ends and the Coventry Canal begins.
We hope there will be time to take a diversion up the Ashby Canal.
We went up there last year and enjoyed it.
It's a twenty-two miles long lock free canal, and passes through some delightful rural countryside.
Click here to read about The Ashby Canal
As the Ashby is a cul-de-sac, we shall turn at the end
and travel back to rejoin the Coventry Canal and up to Nuneaton.
Here we have friends who want to take us to a Ghurka restaurant.
Then it will be on again to Atherstone, and the northern tip
of Warwickshire at Polesworth.
Years ago when I was teaching and the eleven plus was still in existence,
I used to mark the papers, and I remember one of the schools whose papers I used to mark
was called Polesworth Nethersoles. Isn't that a lovely name?
However, I digress.....
Eventually we shall come to Fazeley Junction, where the Coventry Canal ends
and the Birmingham & Fazeley canal begins.
Now we shall pass through countryside and reach Fradley Junction.
Here we shall turn left and on up to King's Bromley, Armitage, Rugeley,
and eventually arrive at Great Haywood.
At Great Haywood, we shall turn left on to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
and meander through the countryside passing Acton Trussell,
what a lovely name, and join the Shropshire Union at Autherley junction.
Here we shall turn right and travel north, meeting Trev's cousin
from Penkridge somewhere along the route.
We shall go through Market Drayton and Nantwich and eventually turn left
on to the Llangollen Canal.
I hope I haven't bored you to tears!
Well, if you've read this far, you must be interested!
The total distance is roughly two hundred miles and around one hundred locks.
We shall have about five weeks in which to do it.
The usual way of calculating how long a journey on the canal will take
is to allow three miles or three locks per hour.
So, if we add together the miles and the locks and divide by three
we get one hundred hours.
If we spread that over five weeks, it's about twenty hours cruising per week.
So, no hurry!
Of course, we have to allow for the fact that we intend to stop a few times
to visit friends, etc. and also we need to allow for inclement weather.
Any way, it will be another adventure!
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