Newbold to Ashby junction

Thursday 7th June

The first thing we had to do today was go through Newbold tunnel. It was only a short one thankfully, just 250 yards.

Unfortunately another boat was coming the other way and there was something under the water that made John steer off course and the next thing we knew we had scraped the side and then there was a splash and one of the fenders had been ripped off! It was our fault for not lifting up the large blue fenders before we set off and also it was quite funny in a way as we lost the one that we had found a few weeks back! Oh well Karma I guess.. 

 We passed a Viking hire boat which was like the one we had hired on honeymoon which started the boating bug!

 After a while I dropped John and Dex off and they took the car further on and then started walking back. So I was on my own for the next part of the journey.

 It was quite busy and I had to pull over several times and wait to allow boats to pass by as it was too narrow for us to pass further along.

 It was chaos when I got to Rose's narrowboats as not only were there hire boats everywhere to avoid but there were moored boats on both sides and a constant flow of boats coming the other way. I kept my nerve though and am pleased to report I didn't hit anything! There was also a small swing bridge but a kind man opened it for me!

 I was really glad to see John and Dex again and pick them up so John could take over!

We arrived at Sutton Stop where the canal splits. We had to go through a very shallow lock and then make a sharp bend right to stay on the Oxford going North. The other option was to take the canal to Coventry where it comes to a dead end. It's only a 5.5 mile stretch and very urban so we decided not to do that in the boat. We could easily drive into Coventry to look around. 

This is the Greyhound pub which is a lovely old canalside traditional pub. We would be meeting up with Marion and Ken (my sister and brother in law) 

there on Monday. 

We remembered this bend from when we brought the boat down from Tamworth in 2014. It was really tricky at also it was windy that day and the wind pushed us into the side. So John was well prepared today and managed it without any problems!

I liked the name of this boat!

 This boat comes from Pewsey!

 I took over steering for the next stretch

We then passed the most bizarre set of moorings we had ever seen. There were mannequins everywhere, all in different costumes and the busiest and most random display of stuff you're ever likely to come across! 

This was followed by a boatyard which to be honest looked more like a boat graveyard but amazingly some of the boats were lived on. 

Finally we reached our mooring for the next few days which was just before the connection to the Ashby canal.

 Dex and I went for a walk back along the canal. We came across some beautiful houses with moorings not far from the bizarre moorings we had seen earlier but very different.

 It was a peaceful spot and a good place to leave the boat as we were away for the weekend.