Bosworth Battle site to Hawkesbury Junction
Saturday 27th July
This morning has dawned calm and cloudy and also somewhat
cooler. According to those weather experts yesterday we can expect a mixture of
rain and sunshine today, so if it’s raining by the time we plan on leaving here
for Stoke Golding, we’ll probably stay here another day.
Monday 30th July
Despite the fact that most kids are now on their summer
break, there doesn’t seem to be much activity on the Ashby. We’ve seen the odd
day boat and holiday boat, but nowhere near as many as we would expect.
Perhaps, after last summer and all that torrential rain, people who would
normally hire a boat have taken a foreign holiday but, whatever the reason it’s
certainly made it easier for us to find moorings.
When we arrived at Stoke Golding on Saturday morning they
were almost empty. Later in the day of course, we saw other boats arriving but,
even then it didn’t completely fill up.
On Sunday morning, just late enough for the pub to be open on
the way back, we climbed the hill to the bus stop and checked the times for
Nuneaton and then repaired to The George and Dragon which, quite by chance, is
right opposite the bus stop. This pub now belongs to Church End Brewery of
Nuneaton and boasts a host of cask ales, one of which is called WTFH.
Naturally I thought the same as you, but, no, it’s actually
the initial letters to What the Fox’s Hat. Clever huh! They also have their own
lager called Freedom which, at just £3.10 per pint is pretty tasty and
excellent value. Wifey had half a pint of their cask cider which, at 6% gravity
was two points up on the lager, so pretty strong stuff.
And that’s about it for the weekend, except to say that,
once again the weather men were right and we had quite a bit of rain in the
afternoon of Sunday, so much so that we had to shut all the windows. Our
windows open at the top and simply drop back to leave an opening. The rain was
so fierce that it was bouncing off the outside of the pane and splashing into
the boat.
Yesterday we spent an hour in Nuneaton, but I was still
unable to find a handle for my pastel box, however today we’ll be moving on to
Hinkley Wharf and after spending the day there, we’ll go to Nuneaton again on
Wednesday and have a proper look around. We didn’t really have enough time
yesterday after shopping and, from Hinkley Wharf we do have a choice of buses,
which should allow us to stay a little longer.
Wednesday 31st July
It’s raining this morning and we have to take the bus to
Nuneaton again, this time to put a prescription into the chemist. No doubt
we’ll have to go back tomorrow, because none of the chemists that we’ve visited
so far have my test strips in stock.
Yesterday we came down from Stoke Golding, as you all know
and, come the evening time, we were the only boaters moored here. Late in the
evening, just as we were preparing for bed, Wifey looked out of the side hatch
and saw some suspicious goings on at the bridge. Of course yours truly is
already undressed at this time, so I had to get dressed and go to investigate.
All I found was a trio of older school kids sitting on a bench chatting. Still,
I took a tour around and over said bridge but, having seen nothing untoward,
returned to the boat, by which time the kids had decided to go home.
This morning, before we go into Nuneaton and, since we are a
bit close to the bridge for comfort, we’ll move the boat back to the far end of
these moorings. Sadly, it’s a fact of life, if kids can get up to mischief they
most assuredly will, so the further away from the bridge the better. Still, if
the chemists do happen to stock my test strips, and that’s a big IF, we could
move on today. We will see what we will see.
Now, what are we going to do for winter moorings?
Thursday 1st August
Well now, those winter moorings! It seems that CRT have come
up with a new idea regarding continuous cruisers – that’s us – and the need to
stay in one place during the winter months.
Due to complaints from serious continuous cruisers, CRT will
no longer offer regular 48 hour moorings as winter moorings. This is because,
when these areas are full of boats during those months, those hardy folks who
continue to move around our waterways, find it difficult to find somewhere to
moor overnight.
So, CRT have come up with a new plan which, if we were to
take it up, would cost us only £425 for the months of November to March
inclusive, based upon the length of our boat.
On the face of it this is a generous offer and means that,
we only have to tell CRT where we wish to moor up and we receive a licence to
do so. But there are a few snags. In the first place; and goodness knows why
this is so; we wouldn’t be able to moor within 500 yards of regular moorings
and marina entrances. This means that we wouldn’t be able to moor anywhere near
a town or village, since the majority of 48 hour and 7 day moorings are
situated near towns and villages.
Another problem would be the need to run our engine for at
least four hours per day, which means of course that it would cost us at least
£28 per week in diesel.
Adding all this up and including the use of more gas and
such, we would be no better off financially than staying at Mercia. Also, at
Mercia we do have parking for the car but, if we took up CRT’s offer our car
would then be on the street, assuming we could find a suitable location for it.
All in all, if we are unable to find cheap, online moorings,
back to Mercia we go. So, keep looking.
Today we’ll be taking the bus to Nuneaton again, but only to
pick up my medication, then we’ll be off to Lime Kilns to top up with water and
move on again to bridge 5 of this canal. With luck we’ll spend the weekend at
Hawkesbury Junction, which joins the Coventry canal to the North Oxford.
Saturday 3rd August
Having suffered an evening and night time of heat and
humidity, yesterday dawned a wee bit cooler and so we moved along about half a
mile or so, to bridge three. This leaves us about four miles of this and the
Coventry canal to get to Hawkesbury Junction, which joins the Coventry to the
North Oxford. We’ll stay at Hawkesbury for the weekend and then travel down the
Oxford, still in hopes of finding some suitable online moorings. We came
through some at Burton Hastings a while ago and Sheila gave them a call
yesterday, but they are not taking any more moorers, because they are in the
throes of building a new marina. So much for that one then!
We are still considering taking up the CRT offer and staying
somewhere along the Ashby, simply because this would give us almost 50 miles of
lock-free cruising during the winter months, which would be a pleasant change,
especially on those milder days. The Ashby is 23 miles long and the Coventry
would give us another 10 miles, between Atherstone and Hawkesbury, with another
14 miles on the Oxford, so, a total of 47 miles. There would be just one
stop-lock at Hawkesbury Junction to contend with, but it’s unlikely we’d ever
go that far.
So, the sun is out and we have a light head wind to contend
with, so we’ll definitely be off to Hawkesbury Junction. I’ll therefore wish
you a most enjoyable weekend.
Well, I would do if I had a strong enough signal here. I’ll
try again at Hawkesbury.
Sunday 4th August
Yesterday we travelled the 3 miles or so to Hawkesbury
Junction, which is on the Coventry Canal and joins up with the North Oxford. At
lunchtime today we’ll join the happy throng at The Greyhound pub, which faces
onto a small basin, right at the junction and has plenty of seating outside.
With a bit of luck and a tail wind it will remain dry today.
Now, let’s see about posting this blog.
All abreast for now.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty
No comments:
Post a Comment