The end of the Ashby

Friday 6^th June; Sutton Cheney to the terminus and back to Snarestone

It rained overnight and was still raining when we woke up, but by the time we moved off at 9 it had stopped.  The sun shone quite a bit and it was lovely, as long as you weren’t cruising straight into the wind, which was icy.  We wore waterproof jackets, not really for the occasional few spots of rain, but to keep the wind from chilling our bones.

Still strimming

After an hour we came across the mowing contractors again, working their way towards the end of the canal.  We expect to see them again tomorrow!   Except that it’s Saturday tomorrow so we probably won’t. The sign warns of dredging back the way we had come – there was no similar sign the other side of the dredger so we think they must have finished.  An article in Towpath Talk says they expected to shift 1700 tonnes of silt, to be used as backfill in the towpath repairs near Shenton or spread on fields near Far Coton. 

Hello

A boater coming the other way commented it was like a motorway today – we hadn't noticed, they must all be ahead of us.  We didn’t see moving boats again till we had stopped for lunch at Shackerstone, just past the aqueduct, and then several went by in each direction.

Why do aqueducts so often have sharp bends at one end?

After lunch we continued to the end of the canal, having to wait for a boat as it came through Snarestone tunnel - it might seem wide enough but you can't pass inside.

 

We hadn’t had problems with lack of depth up till now, and though there was a bit of silting in the winding hole we turned with no problem. 

The swing bridge marks the end of navigation for most boats.  There is a winding hole right at the end but we are too long for it, and didn’t see the point of going there just to reverse all the way back through a lot of weed.

I went to check the facilities to get rid of the rubbish that had been round the prop, but although there is a big rubbish skip there are no recycling facilities at all, so that all had to stay on the boat.  Then we went to the Ashby Canal Society shop, to donate a canal book and also a bag of coins.  Back on our last trip we were descending one of the Aston locks out of Birmingham when I noticed what looked like a dog poo bag neatly tied and left on the step at the bottom gate.  Once I’d done the paddles and the boat was going down I dropped it onto the bow where we put such things for disposal, and there was a clang as it landed.  How mysterious!  Had the owner accidentally picked  up a stone as well?  When I went to dispose of it that evening I realised it wasn’t a dog bag at all, but a collection of 5p pieces.  By then we were in Curdworth and it was much too far away to return it, so it had been sitting in the well deck while we decided what to do with it.  A canal society seemed appropriate.  We bought a fridge magnet and ice creams and strolled up to the end of the restoration so far.

Looking back to the new(ish) bridge from the section waiting to be restored

Walking round the winding hole

No more work had been done since when we first came  up here.  Then the length had just been completed and all was bare concrete or earth, and harsh edges.  The vegetation has made it much more attractive. 

There had only just been enough room for us to moor, and with another boat approaching we left, having decided to stop for the night the other side of the tunnel.

Looking through from the north portal.  Snarestone tunnel is crooked and it’s one boat through at a time.

We moored a couple of hundred yards past the tunnel.  Jess and I walked up to the village to find the farm shop.  We were running low on milk, so I was relieved to find it still open at getting on for 5.  I also got strawberries, eggs, sausages, asparagus and cake, so although it was quite a trek down the road it was worth the effort.

 

Meanwhile, Dave had found the reason for charge not getting through to the bow thruster batteries.  Exhaustive testing with the multimeter showed that the 60 amp fuse he found yesterday was bust.   He had a 40 amp one that would fit, so put that in to see if the problem was fixed – it was.  He will get the right size as soon as possible.

10½ miles, Snarestone tunnel twice, Shenton and Shackerstone aqueducts.