We were up and away this morning just after 9 and within 5 minutes we were through Newbold Tunnel, where none of the pretty lights installed in 2005 seem to be working any more. It seems a shame that after spending £195,000 to install them nobody can find the money to change the bulbs!
It promised to be an easy day today, but on reaching Rose Narrowboats at Stretton Stop where there is a narrow section (once I presume a toll point) with a little swing bridge which has to be moved to come through, as we approached I could see a boat coming towards us through the narrows, but instead of opening the bridge a lady hopped off and went to ask the staff about something, fair enough but whist waiting, the wind blew us across the canal and we had to wait on the wharf; they eventually brought their boat through which by that time had another waiting behind them and it was our turn to go through. Blow me if she didn’t go and close the bridge in front of us!!! Happily one of Rose Narrowboats staff opened it again and we both shook our heads in amazement.
We were hoping to moor at Ansty for lunch but the visitor moorings were full and the Rose & Crown’s moorings were silted up and inaccessible, the second pub in as many days we have noticed does not to want custom from canal users. It’s probably no small wonder as the pub’s owners were responsible for the demolition of Bridge 15 which once linked the towpath to the pub.
Enough moaning! We found a place to stop for lunch before Hawkesbury Junction although Catty jumped ship and disappeared into the hedgerow but was bribed back in with some ham by the time we had eaten.
Onwards through Sutton Stop Lock and the 360 degree turn through the junction under the gaze of The Greyhound Inn’s customers! The incongruous electricity pylon is nothing compared with the view before the 1980s.
See Longford Eye and Coventry Society for more historical information 
Within a couple of hours we had passed Marston Junction (where we turned off a few weeks ago to visit the Ashby Canal) and into the suburbs of Nuneaton, we were undecided whether we should moor here for the night, but the offer of a spliff from a group of passing youths at Boot Wharf (generous though it was) decided it for us.
We passed Starclass Fuels headed into Nuneaton but in less than an hour we spotted this iconic telegraph pole, which even has a mention in our Pearson’s Guide, and we were well away from suburbia moored up near Springwood Haven with just the sound of the train line to remind us that we weren’t that far from town.
Joy missed her art class today so is doing her homework at the table in the ‘pointy bit’, maybe there will be a photo tomorrow?