Monday 11th May
Yet another early start (I’m getting used to it now) and we travelled the last mile of the Ashby Canal and turned on to the Coventry Canal at Marston Junction. Then we travelled a further 7.5 miles to Atherstone. We are now heading towards the Trent and Mersey Canal at Fradley.
Before we venture that far we are going to put the boat in Alvecote Marina while we go to London this weekend. And before we get to the marina we have to negotiate the 11 locks in the Atherstone flight. We decided to moor at the top of the flight today and do the locks on Tuesday.
Our journey today has taken us through the allotment capital of England – Nuneaton. I may have mentioned this before, Nuneaton town is ok, with it’s huge market, plenty of useful shops and pubs but the route through it by canal is utterly uninspiring! Mind you Dr Who seems to have turned up there (see photos). Some of the miriad of allotments are well kept but some are well capable of harbouring relatives of David Livinstone!
After Nuneaton comes a series of disused and landscaped granite quarries, interesting scenery. Then Hartshill with that lovely B W yard with the attractive clock tower (see photos).
So on to Atherstone, quite a nice village with a large market place and a church with an octagonal tower. The moorings aren’t the most picturesque being dominated by the derelict hat factory. We managed to moor so we weren’t in the shadows of it.
After mooring we walked in to town. In the Market Place is the Market Tavern (surely not!) and after visiting the Coop we partook of the waters there (Old Speckled Hen) for a while, as you do.
Back at the boat later we became aware of the fact that there had been dogs barking nearby, almost continually, since we arrived. In fact this carried on until about 7pm!
Tomorrow we are going to Alvecote.
