Rubbish weather forecast as we return to the North Oxford

Friday 31^st May; Anchor Bridge (Coventry canal) to

Grimes Bridge 26 (North Oxford).

The quarry on the far side of the canal kept working till well past 8 o’clock last night, but the operations were much nearer to the bridge than we were; so when they started again before 7am, they were far enough away not be a nuisance.  We were up anyway, but weren’t in a rush to get moving – the cloud cover was complete and it was COLD!  Where were the temperatures in the low 20s that had been promised?  We didn’t leave till after 9, well wrapped up.  A steady procession of boats was travelling north as we headed south.  Some boats have been seriously customised;

But some just have good names

And here is the obligatory photo which I took yesterday, but there was no space for it on the last blog.

We pottered through the dreary stretches of Nuneaton, which was reasonably litter-free for a change, but bleak under the low cloud.  I didn’t even bother to mention passing through it yesterday – the best bits are the allotments, which I love looking at and comparing their veg with mine.  Along the way we noticed some fields where the outside edge – a tractor-spray-boom width, by the look of it – had been weedkilled. 

Why would they do that?  If they are creating an area for wildlife round the edge, I would have thought weedkiller was not the best idea – it could kill bees and other pollinators if there are wild flowers there, and it’s a waste of wheat seed anyway, if that’s what was there before.

We entered Bedworth, where Dave spotted that the fishing skeleton had got a catch!  I didn’t have the camera to hand, so it was a bit of a last-minute blur.

We moored for lunch before Hawkesbury junction, and did a bit more spring-cleaning – my task was to clean the cratch cover of the bird poo that had appeared.  After lunch we went along to the facilities point to empty the cassettes.  Luckily the bin-men had been so I could dispose of the recycling which was building up to an awkward level.  Then we reversed back and went round the junction and through the stop lock – no queues today.

The sun suddenly came out and it was hot and humid – as long as the sun was out and you were sheltered from the wind.  One of the bridges, can’t remember which but it may have been in Ansty, had some excellent graffiti though you had to look closely to see it properly!

We would have liked to moor at All Oaks Wood again, but it was getting late and we thought there might not be space, so stopped instead before bridge 26, Grimes Bridge, a mile or so past the M6 bridge.  Here is one of our lovely neighbours.

And Meg liked it too.  We did a few more jobs and bits of cleaning before we called it a day.

1 stop lock, 12 miles