Voyages of Gabriel: Atherstone Locks to Hawkesbury Junction

Thu 13^th July Atherstone Locks to Mancetter

Stephen Carter came past on the towpath, in his CRT volunteer uniform. He was the first of five we saw heading for one of the bottom locks with a plan to paint it.

As we set off, we saw that one of the boats beyond the bridge was also setting off. Then yet another cast off between us, so we had three in a convoy, and a lock queue as a result. The one in front of us was Poppy Rose – a pleasant couple.

At lock 7 we met Sally Naylor who was helping another boat down. Eric was not involved as he had an eye test. After Lock 6 we moored up to go shopping. In hindsight we could have gone a bit further to save a walk. We went to Aldi, and also the large Co-op. James nipped to the High Street to post a card for Jasmin’s birthday. In the Co-op we discovered there was a café, and they were offering a cooked breakfast, so we indulged. The service was friendly, and the meal was well presented.

Back at the boat, we departed once more, and found several boats coming down the locks. One of them was Graham Pope, who has bought an ex-hireboat. We didn’t have to set any locks, and at the top lock there were two more volunteers. We decided not to use the water point, as there was already another boat there. Hartshill will do.

We tried to moor before Bridge 36, where there is a view up the hill to some woods. Sadly, it was too shallow, so we moved on past the Alpaca place and the new Mancetter Marina, and we found a place to moor just after.

Hazel put out some more washing.

A rural scene from our mooring at Atherstone Locks

Starting up Atherstone Locks

Merevale Hall overlooks the locks from the hill top

Meeting Sally Naylor

Lock 5

Meeting Graham Pope

Atherstone Top Lock

Leo II

Moored at Mancetter

Meadow Brown

Skipper

9 locks, 3 miles. Dep 0820, arr 0955 Lock 6/5. Dep 1205, arr 1345 Mancetter.

Fri 14^th July Mancetter

Heavy rain was forecast all day, and we sat it out, catching up on paperwork, and watching tennis. No boating today.

Sat 15^th July Mancetter to Bedworth

With high winds and heavy rain forecast for later, we departed at dawn. Tickover and hush past moored boats. At Hartshill we filled the water tank, before creeping past Firoza without waking Derek and Judy.

The canal follows a contour with great views in places, before an area of quarries and old mines. Nuneaton follows, where they have an amazing number of allotments, and then there is a massive warehouse on the site of the old Griff colliery. Soon after that we had something serious on the prop, stopping it completely. With our momentum, and the use of our bow thruster, we managed to get into the side, where there was piling to hook onto. In the end there was only a bit of cloth. The other thing must have dropped off. A heavy rain shower arrived, so we stayed put until it had passed.

We arrived in Bedworth as planned, mooring just before Bulkington Bridge, and looking out at intermittent heavy rain and high winds.

There wasn’t much of a TV signal, so we watched the Wimbledon final online. A good wet day occupation. Djokovic lost to Alcaraz.

We saw BCF boat Go with the Flow go past, but they didn’t pause.

The water point at Hartshill

Creeping past Firoza

The quarry area

Marston Junction where the Ashby starts

Cloth on the prop

Comma

Gatekeeper

0 locks, 7 miles. Dep 0545, arr 0830 Bridge 16. Dep 0900, arr 0935 Bridge 14.

Sun 16^th July Bedworth to Hawkesbury Junction

As we were leaving the boat to go to church, Cranley came round the corner, so we had a quick chat with Mick and Suzanne.

We caught a number 56 bus which took us into Bedworth, with a bus stop right outside our destination: Life Church. We had a warm welcome, and were shown into the café for a coffee. A lady called Peggy joined us and introduced herself. She asked if we had reserved our seats for the service. We hadn’t, so she took us into the auditorium, which was buzzing with people. The worship was excellent, with keyboard, guitar, bass and drums, a lady lead singer plus three backing vocalists. We knew very few of the songs, and some were brilliant, and are now in the pipeline for us to lead back in Aylesbury. The talk was about decision making, and how and why we make our plans. We were privileged to pray for Peggy, and she kindly gave us a lift back to the bridge.

We departed promptly to make the two mile journey to Hawkesbury Junction, where we turned and reversed up the Coventry Arm to a visitor mooring just before the first bridge. We got caught in a rain shower as we were mooring up. We had a Zoom chat with Jack and Sandra in Aylesbury.

We went for a Sunday roast in the Greyhound. Thankfully, they serve until 7pm.