Two junctions, two canals and at last a lock

Monday 14^th July; Marston Junction (Coventry canal) to past bridge 11 (North Oxford).

It was peaceful till about 6, when we started to hear tapping on the roof.  Birds?  Rain?  The pattern, or lack of it, reminded us we were under a tree.

Failed acorns all over the roof

Never mind, we needed the shade yesterday!  And it’s a little cooler this morning too, though still with no sign of rain.

Clearing the solar panels for max efficiency; we're not planning a long cruise today

We left at our usual time around 9.30, and pottered down towards Hawkesbury Junction.  Charity Dock, or at least the online moorings along the garden bit, looked emptier than we remembered, fewer boats meaning a clearer view of the general scruffiness, the tired-looking mannequins and other items.  But we’ve got plenty of photos and we’ve seen it so often we honestly couldn’t be bothered.  Here are some Great Reed Mace instead.

Not bulrushes!

The wind was coming up the canal towards us, though not at all cold.  We took the first mooring on the armco before Hawkesbury junction.   We could see that there was maybe one other spot next to the water point but a bird in the hand, etc, so that’s where we stayed.  We needed bread, so I wandered down to the bins with some of the accumulated rubbish and recycling and then went up and over the footbridge to walk to the convenience store the other side of the little housing development.

Steep steps on the footbridge.  Some of the residents on the long-term moorings were making very heavy weather of them.

One of the residential roads is called Sephton Street; Sephton’s House and Boatyard used to face the junction.  The little shop had plenty of sweets and an off-license, and not a massive range of food, but they did have bread.  Nicholson’s tells us that the disused Engine House at the junction housed a Newcomen-type atmospheric steam engine called Lady Godiva (we're not far from Coventry), which was previously used at Griff Colliery north of Marston Junction.  Until 1913 it was used to pump water from a well into the canal.

It was still only 11 when I got back, so we made coffee and read the paper, having plenty of time on our hands.  We have abandoned plans to spend a few days on the South Oxford summit, where there are some lovely moorings; although we could easily get as far as Fenny Compton and back, with the Napton flight closing on Monday week because of lack of water – indeed the whole of the South Oxford as far as Cropredy – it would be a terrible waste of water.  After lunch we waited for the water point to become free and went along to top up.  I took the rest of the rubbish to the compound, namely the polystyrene bits and pieces I had pulled out of the canal.  Some clot has thought fit to wrench the pedestrian gate of the newly built compound off its hinges.  Maybe it was the same person who did the fly-tipping though they could easily have hefted most of the stuff over the fence without wrecking the gate.  More expense for CRT, sadly.

Dave executed a perfect turn at the junction, in the wind, without benefit of bow-thrusters.  You can see the curtains all closed against the heat of the sun - I had to close the other side once we were round the 180 degree turn.

The little stop lock was quickly ascended and a boat arrived to take it from us.  We wondered about trying to moor so we could have a meal at the Greyhound, but the wind was blowing the motorway noise to us and we had been finding it rather oppressive.  Anyway there were no spaces, so we couldn’t have.  We kept our eyes open for water voles, and Dave spotted one, but the photo was too indistinct to see what the brown blob was.  The short stretch of Armco between bridges 11 and 13 was free so we moored up for the night.  This is where the motorway is furthest away from the canal till well past Ansty, so the noise is not too bad.  The wind had got up and waves were marching along the canal.

We were all tied up by 3.  This was taken in the evening.

There was a light shower as we moored, and the wind got up even more – at times it was moaning in the wires between the pylons that crossed the canal.  The weather was sunny again later.  We were surprised that no-one joined us.  One chap would have liked to, but his dogs don’t like other dogs so he felt he had to go on.  There is plenty of Armco closer to Hawkesbury Junction, but it is noisy from the motorway.

About 5 miles, 1 lock, 2 junctions (Marston, though we didn’t actually go round it, and Hawkesbury), 2 canals – Coventry and North Oxford.