Wet, but we had to move

Wednesday 20^th September; All Oaks Wood to near Hawkesbury Junction

On the face of it, this was a good spot to be.  With the wind from the south-west the wood protected us nicely, although we could see from the clouds how strong it was.  Passing boats yesterday hadn’t shifted the pins.  This morning the forecast was pretty dismal and we weren’t anticipating moving.  The rain started before 9, and during a lull Dave took Meg up to the far end of the wood – although it had started raining again by the time they got back, they had kept dry under the tree canopy.

Our neighbours weren’t bothered by the rain

I had cleaned through by the time they got back, and was ready to catch the dog and dry her paws before she ran through my clean boat.  A few boats were passing, mostly hirers with a schedule to keep to.  We were enjoying coffee, watching the rain and catching up with the papers, when a passing boat went by too fast.  Dave had to reposition the pins at the bow which had pulled loose from the sodden ground.  Half an hour later it happened again, so the decision was made to have lunch and move on afterwards.  Interestingly, earlier on a deep-draughted tug went by so perfectly that we barely moved.  Another speed merchant came by as we finished eating and we could delay leaving no longer.  It wasn’t raining much, and under the oaks we were quite sheltered.

We had a clear run through Stretton Stop and the little swing bridge, unlike the last time when there were boats in both directions, all having to negotiate the fully occupied moorings.  On the way there I took a photo of the iron towpath bridge over an arm during a lull in the rain. They are always photogenic even if they could do with a coat of paint!

The M6 bridge is a lot less elegant and the tyre noise in the wet was very loud.  Then under the high Nettle Hill bridge we went.  This bit of the canal was re-routed through Nettle Hill in the 1820s as part of the straightening works on the original contour canal – the bridge only carries a minor road now.  There are some strange-looking ramps at the towpath edge – does anyone know what they might be for?  They look too steep for horses, deer or hedgehogs.

In the past we have moored on pins in the Hopsford aqueduct area where the blackberries are good (and the railway close) but didn’t want to risk pins again in this rainy weather.  In the increasingly wet afternoon we pressed on towards Ansty.  We were held up for a while by what appeared to be a breasted pair coming towards a bridge in the distance.  We’d better hold back, we thought.  But were they moving at all?  We crept closer - nobody steering?  Had they come adrift from a mooring?  It was a pair of work boats, with nothing seeming to be holding them to the bank, and the bow of the inner one was about three feet from the bank, but they definitely weren’t moving.

From the stern

On we went.  We didn’t really want to stop at Ansty – the towpath is narrow and muddy and the noise from the motorways is appalling.  Would the short mooring between Ansty and bridge 11 be free?  No.  Bugger.  If we’d only been 5 minutes earlier we would have beaten the second boat to it!  Never mind.  We were getting cold now though, so rather than go on to the junction moorings, which could well be very busy, we pulled in after bridge 5 where we knew there is a long stretch of Armco before the bendy bit.  The motorway is up high and about 100 yards away behind the trees, so not overwhelming.  We peeled off our wet weather gear, and the Eberspacher had its first run of the autumn.  Eventually it stopped raining and there was a late rainbow.

Check out the reflection!

We were right by a decent bramble hedge, so out went Dave to pick a bowlful of late blackberries, which I cooked with some Bramleys from the garden.

8 miles.