Hawkesbury Junction

Today's Canal : Oxford

We awoke to a brought sunny day with a mixture of blue sky and fluffy clouds. It remained this was all day but remained slightly chilly despite the sun.

However, it was rarely a good day for photos as the sun was shining right behind us  most of the trip making if impossible to see much when looking back from the stern. Just occasionally the canal changed direction enough to illuminate the side of this facing us.

Every cloud has a silver lining but in the case of this boat every blue sky helps to generate a lot more electricity!

As well as all the spring flowers, there is plenty of white blossom in the hedgerows.

After about 40 minutes we passed the entrance to Brinklow Marina, our current official Home Mooring but, with another week to go on this Shakedown cruise, we continued on past, heading now towards Coventry Basin. The edge of the city is already quite close (we had to check the map several times to convince ourselves that we really could see the buildings in the city centre). Hopefully we will reach there around lunch time tomorrow.

Bridge 35, known as Hungerfield Bridge, was at just the right angle to the sun to get a usable picture. Alongside the bridge is the former Boat Inn, long since converted to a private residence.

Last year we noted that the repairs to the bank collapses were still incomplete and the towpath closed to walkers. The route is now open and nature is just beginning to reclaim its territory on the restored cutting side. Even now, a couple of places were till very muddy underfoot and water continues to seep out of the bank.

At Stretton Stop we paused at the water point to replenish our tank,  rather depleted by a load of washing through the machine this morning. The site generally looks as if it is not been having a good time recently - the hire boats were once noted for their splendid condition - but no doubt the moorings on the lengthy arm (part of the abandoned original line) bring in a goodly income. The chandlery shop has now closed but the boatyard seemed to have work to do. (It is able to haul boats up a slipway for out-of-water work) The tap is not one of the fastest and it took a while for the tank to fill, but we found in the past that the ones at Ansty and Hawkesbury are no faster (unlike Braunston)

The short mooring arm looks as if it has been recently dug out for a leisure boat but maps from over a c century ago show a slight indentation to the bank here so perhaps there was a small wharf but we can find no evidence one way or another.

The next section of the canal has very few mooring opportunities - the towpath edge was constructed with sloping stone sides, long before the desire for boats to be able to tie up whenever their crew wish to stop. We considered Ansty but the good moorings here are usually very full so we made the decision to press on and have lunch 'on the go'. Of course, when we passed Ansty there was plenty of room had we still wished to stop!

We spotted nothing remarkable on the way to Hawkesbury. When we arrived around 2.30 there were only four other boats moored just above the lock so we could tie up to the piling and not have to use hammered in pins - unlike last year when we stopped here on the night before our return to Brinklow and our forced house arrest for the rest of the cruising year. Other boats did turn up to moor behind us - the next to arrive minutes after we had tied up, had to use pins.

11.4 Miles - 0 Locks