Mark stopped by on Tuesday
morning and filled us up with diesel and dropped off five bags of coal. It made me realise how far south we are as we haven't seen him on his round for over a year.
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| Mark with his dog on fuel boat Callisto |
It was due to have been a
sunny day so I did some washing but by the time it had finished the skies had
darkened and it started to rain. Oh well, another day of washing drying indoors
which is often the case in the winter but it doesn’t take long with the stove
going.
After lunch I took Buddy on
a bike ride. The plan was to cycle down
to Hawkesbury junction and look at good places for Karen to park the car. After about three miles I ended up
with two punctures and started pushing the bike. I recognised a moored boat and asked the lady
if I could leave my bike in the hedge and I would pick it up on the way back.
I only found one Coventry
canal milestone on the walk and unbelievably a fishing peg number had been
painted on it.
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| 19 miles to Fazeley - 8 to Coventry - fishing match peg 13 |
This is looking down the
start of the Ashby canal which joins the Coventry canal at Marston
junction. We travelled the length of it
in December 2014.
The Ashby also has milestones
but most are modern replacements and show the distance from the start at
Marston to the end at Moira. Currently the canal terminates 22 miles away at Snarestone and is lock free. Plans are in place to reinstate the last eight miles and we explored that section by foot when we visited at the end of 2014.
We made it to Hawkesbury
junction where the North Oxford canal joins the Coventry canal. Tomorrow I will cruise down here and complete
a tight 180 degree turn under the bridge where I stood to take the picture, go
through the stop lock at the start of the North Oxford canal and find somewhere
to moor.
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| Coventry canal on left. Start of North Oxford on right through stop lock. Junction is under the bridge I am standing on. Steam engine house on left used to pump water from well into canal. Greyhound pub out of sight to the right. |
This is the Greyhound
which overlooks the junction and is a great favourite amongst boaters. Coincidentally tomorrow is “Cheeky Wednesday”,
our excuse to visit a pub midweek, and we will be appropriately moored. I seem to remember that my parents always
went out for a drink on Wednesday evenings too.
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| The Greyhound at Hawkesbury - one of the top boaters' pubs |
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