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