Posted 12th June
Another brilliant sunny day, though the wind is cold again. We set off around 8.30 along with several other boats who all had the same idea. The canal was stunning with the early sunshine on the May blossom, but it was cold! This is the first time we have been on this section of the Coventry canal and we saw some surprising things near a small boatyard; note the legs disappearing over the side of the boat! There were also a policeman, an army officer in uniform and a couple of superheroes; and Deb swore she saw a large hairy pig – a real one – peering over a gate behind a shed.
Once we had made the very tight turn onto the Ashby, the character of the canal changed completely. The trees sheltering the canal from the buildings of Bedworth vanished and the sun streamed in – as did the wind. This is an almost entirely rural canal and very beautiful. Just an occasional reminder of the modern world, beautiful too in an odd way;
Do pylons have babies?
We took on water at Watling Street and then cruised on to bridge 23 where we stopped for lunch and a visit to the widely advertised Spinney Bank farm shop, which had milk, bread and cakes from a local baker, and various veg, meats and bacon from their own farm and local suppliers.
At Stoke Golding, we noticed that the Ashby Boat Co seemed to have most of its boats lying unused – the lady at Kate Boats at Stockton Top had said their bookings were low too. We continued in the sunshine and stopped just short of bridge 33, in a quiet and sunny spot. Dave got the fishing rod out during the evening and caught a couple of carp to round off the day.
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