All Oak Wood

Yesterday we departed our spot at Willoughby, aiming for All Oak Wood near the village of Brinklow. Setting off we formed part of a convoy of boats, all heading towards Hillmorton. The first point of interest we passed, is the location of the new Dunchurch Pools Marina at Onley. Situated in pleasant rural countryside, but unfortunately adjacent to the local prison. Still work seems to be progressing, and it looks absolutely huge.  

 

 

Next to navigate, was the Barby straight and Barby moorings. This straight section of canal is about a mile long, and passes beneath the M45. Barby moorings are another Marina, but it has the character of a very bleak boat park. Rounding a bend at the end of the straight, and we were on the approach to the Hillmorton flight of three locks. These locks are in pairs, and are reported to be the busiest on the entire network. We were also at the nearest point to our home berth at Yelvertoft, only a fifteen minute drive away. It has taken us four days to get here. We descended the flight, and moored by the water point to refill the tank. The taps here are ridiculously slow, even worse if more than one is being used at a time. Still this allowed for a suitable lunch stop to be had. After lunch we set off on the next leg of our journey, through Rugby. A long section of towpath here was closed to the public, where they appear to be strengthening the bank, below which lays the retail park. Then on through Newbold tunnel, before the final few miles to All Oak Wood. Suspecting that the mooring area might be busy, due to the time of day and the amount of boat traffic we had seen, we opted to try and moor on the south side of the Wood. We had tried here before and found it very shallow, but this time we found a mooring deep enough to get into the side. We had to use the pins for mooring on this side, but now we have found this spot we will opt to use it in our future travels, when we are passing this point.    

 

Today we went for a short walk through the woods, to the further mooring area the other side. It was indeed busy, but there were a few moorings available, however we prefer our new spot. During the walk we saw our first batch of ducklings for this year. They looked to be very new.    

 

 

 

We plan to move off tomorrow and are aiming for Sutton Stop. This is the end of the Oxford Canal at its junction with the Coventry Canal. We plan on spending the weekend there before heading off for the Ashby Canal, which will be new water for us.

• Totals 13 Miles 3 Locks 1 Tunnel
• Running total 50 Miles 18 Locks 3 Tunnels 

All Oak Wood/Brinklow

Today we left the area of Willoughby and a little over an hour later we arrived at Hillmorton Locks. There are two pairs of three locks here but currently one side has been closed due to a lock cill being damaged. The water in the pounds between the locks was also very low so we travelled very slowly through the flight. At the bottom we pulled in for water and to dispose of some rubbish. The water tap was the slowest we have encountered, taking over half an hour just to top up a quarter of our tank. Whilst waiting we were provided with some entertainment. A couple of boats were moored in the winding hole by the bottom lock. Not ideal but the was still plenty of room. A boat entered the winding hole and during the process of turning proceeded to T-bone one of the moored boats at full throttle. After filling with water we continued on until we reached All Oak Wood. Whilst here we saw a boat passing, nb ploddinalong. They also write a blog which is now added to my blog list. We will probably stay here till Monday or Tuesday.

Totals 13 Miles 3 Locks 1 Tunnel

Brinklow

We stayed on our mooring today and after conducting some maintenance and cleaning we walked into Brinklow. This is a small village about a mile walk from the canal the main focal point being the church.

There is a small deli a post office and three pubs so this could be a good winter mooring spot for the future. On entry to the village is the village sign and a new war memorial which is due to be unveiled later this month.

On return to the boat it was lunchtime and then later I went foraging for towpath apples and blackberries. These were made into a crumble which will tonight's pudding.

Tomorrow we head for Braunston which is about 15 miles and 3 locks away so we hope to be underway by 7 or 7.30 at the latest.