What’s this wet stuff?

Tuesday 15^th July; before Ansty to All Oaks Wood

Although the weather was cloudy, with light rain forecast till 5pm, that wasn’t the reason we had a late start.  Yesterday our friend who waters the greenhouse had let us know our water supply had failed – we are not on the mains and the elderly pipework failed at the end of May.  But we are still waiting for quotes to make the repair permanent, and the temporary fix had failed.  Fortunately our clever son lives not far away and was able to fix the problem (blown fuse, reason discovered and corrected) so at least we will have water when we get home!

Troublemakers

So it was well after 11 before we got going.  Soon after Ansty we could see a boat across the canal and crew on the bank scrambling onto the bow.  They got themselves sorted, but shortly after stopped again to drop the crew off with their dogs to continue their walk.  The parent swans were extremely aggressive, hissing at us even though we were six feet away, and on the narrow towpath had not been about to let dogs anywhere near their babies!  We stopped for lunch once we were clear of the noise of the M6 crossing.  It had rained on and off this morning, nothing much, but suddenly after lunch it pelted down so we waited a bit before moving on. 

Cygnets learning about blackberries

Dave decided to walk the dog, though took the precaution of getting his wet weathers on, as did I – just as well, as the rain got heavier as I approached the moorings at Stretton Stop.  By the time I reached the small swing bridge at Rose Narrowboats it was hammering down.  It was then that I realised I had brought my old waterproof trousers which leak at the knees!  Fortunately Dave had opened the bridge ready, and Jess took the opportunity to leap on board and rush inside!  I picked Dave up under the bridge.  Should we wait in its shelter for the storm to pass over?

Well we didn’t, and it carried on for another ten minutes.

The rain eased off and went back to intermittent light rain as we neared Brinklow.  

Waterway Routes shows that the old route of the North Oxford turned right here

The towpath at Easenhall Cutting has been closed since last winter – or was it the winter before? – after a massive bank collapse which destroyed the towpath and I think closed the canal for a while.  There are fences at either end, but it’s clear they are not stopping walkers.

Not hard to get round

With today’s rain the towpath at the slip looked very muddy and slippery.

As we approached All Oaks Wood we had a dilemma.  The Brinklow end is always crowded and a decent edge is at a premium.  Should we go on and risk there being no room at the far end, where the view is much better but mooring can be tricky?  But there was enough Armco for the bow and centre line at this end so we stopped.

 

The rain had been so heavy that it had washed the failed acorns on the roof into a heap, but not washed them overboard as the centre line had been in the way - I used it of course as we came in to moor.

It continued raining on and off and the evening got so chilly that we had to start closing windows.

5½ miles