The road to Crick - upping the Ansty

The road to Crick - Part 3

May 2013

Day 5 - Snarestone to Ansty - 29 miles - 1 lock - 10.5 hours

Day 6 - Ansty to Crick - 30 miles - 10 locks - 12 hours

Phew - what a couple of days! The weather has been decidedly "off" with strong northerly winds bringing all the seasons in the space of an hour, let alone a day.

We have managed nearly 60 miles from the far end of the Ashby in just two long days, and wenow sit at the western end of the Crick tunnel ready to click into Wild Side mode tomorrow.

The bird of prey was coming off worse.

Yesterday kicked off with yet more socialising with our friends John and Sue joining us as part of John's 50 and quite a lot birthday, travelling from Snarestone for about three hours to Bosworth Battlefield.

The Globe Shackerstone

The route passes a well known motorcycle manufacturer and reminds me of an old joke : Q Who is history's first recorded motorcycle hooligan? A: King David whose Triumph was heard across the land...

The weather kept the boated tied up leaving us to travel crabwise with a strong side wind making steering very tricky.

The plan was to stop at Hawkesbury but all the visiting spots were occupied by some rather ramshackle boats and we were obliged to plug in into the sunset and moot in the relative peace  of Ansty. But even here the roar of the M6 and M62's combined to give a less than perfect night.

The North Oxford was sparkling in the morning sun and the old iron roving bridges were a delight:

Bad weather was forecast for Thursday so we decided to make an early start (6.30am) and make the best of the morning. The wind roared from the north but the rain mostly kept its distance just a couple of miles to the east. We did finally get a downpour as we started up the Braunston flight, with hail and sleet blasting us but by the time we reached the top lock the wind had died, the sun was out and all those winter coats were hurriedly packed away.

With the sun shining down we decided to press on the the foot of the Watford Locks and then as we just had time to enter before closing time we carried on up, covering a significant 30 miles in one long 12 hour stint. To be honest - its way too much, but needs must and we are now just 30 mins from the festival site and will have all day to get set up.

The road to Crick - Calling at the Coalfields

The road to Crick - Part 2

The coalfields of Warwickshire and Leicestershire

May 2013

The Coventry Canal isn't one of the more popular boating routes, sliding through Atherstone and Nuneaton with their myriad of allotments, but the area holds a peculiar fascination for me.

 Bosworth

My usual stomping ground is the lugubrious northern BCN and the played out coalfields which powered the industrial revolution, so maybe it comes as no surprise that I enjoy travelling through areas which live in the shadow of a coal dominated past. They say that at the heel of every successful canal you will find coal and its certainly true of our travels over the last two days. Yesterday it was the Polesworth coalfield, still being worked till the 1960's and then today we reached the far end of the Ashby Canal and the local Mines of Moria - sorry that should read  Moira - too much Tolkien!

Of course, you cant actually reach the Leicestershire coalfilelds to the north of Snarestone any more. The last five of six miles of canal collapsed into the mines they served and the canal staged a phased retreat till the last loads of black gold were carried in the 1960's to a London market then served by road and rail.

For all this post industrial decay the area is surprisingly beautiful in a very middle England sort of way. If fact its the nature which caught our eye, sheets of Bluebells beneath new canopies of green or new born ducklings power walking across the surface of the water.

The Ashby canal is new territory for me - something of a rarity. Actually, thats not strictly true as Capt Ahab Snr cruised up it for a few miles back in the late 1960's and whilst I remember the event I can recall no details. That isnt really very surprising because this canal is a bit devoid of landmarks. The towns and villages tend to stand back from the cut and the canal is left to wander aimlessly through an agricultural landscape which repeats unchangingly for mile after mile. Its in no was unpleasant, just a bit unremarkable.

For my money the best is saved for last - the bit beyond Swarkestone dives into the trees and wiggles on for its last four miles, finishing with a flourish beneath the portals of the Snarestone Tunnel.

The end of the Ashby Canal 2013

Not that the day was dull - far from it. Jeff was returning to Birmingham so I walked him to the station in Hinckley only to discover that all trains were cancelled on account of a derailment. Then our saviour appeared borne along in a gleaming white Audi TT. One of Helen's friends was coming to meet us at the station so she was soon pressed into a detour via Coventry. I folded Jeff into the back seats (shelf) and even he had to admit that my Mondeo has some advantages! 

So thats the end of the Ashby. Tomorrow we retrace our steps and press on to our rendezvous with Crick.