Travelled from Fazeley junction to Fradley junction today, so we have now completed the Coventy Canal section of our journey. Tomorrow we head north on the Trent and Mersey canal
The scenery is improving, although the many boats moored on this section reduced our speed considerably.
The journey took us 4 hours to complete 10.82 miles with no locks.
As you can see Fradley junction is very picturesque. And, the Swan Inn is worthy of a photograph. The pub is small but very friendly, with a good menu and good food.

Yesterday we stayed at Curdworth
Today we set off at 9.30am. Travelled 6.12 miles including 11 locks taking a total of 5 hours.
We have now finished the Birmingham and Fazeley canal.
We joined the Coventry canal at Fazeley Junction, where we are currently moored.
Tomorrow we will travel to Fradeley Junction, and join the Trent and Mersey canal.
At Fradeley Junction  (evidently) is the most pictured pub in the UK. The Swan Inn or the Mucky Duck as some people call it. We will find out why tomorrow and let you know
We are both really enjoying ourselves, and the boat is performing well.

We returned to the boat on Sunday afternoon and travelled a whopping 1 mile to Catherine De Barnes.
Staying overnight, we made an early start, as we wanted to clear Birmingham in one day.
We set off at 7.45am. Travelled through Birmingham on the Grand Union Canal, joining the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Salford Junction, and stopped at Curdworh. A total of 16.58 miles including 14 locks and stopping for water. Total time taken 9 hours 49 minutes.
We knew it would be our busiest day of our trip. But what we hadn't expected was the state of the canals through Birmingham. They were disgusting. We had to stop three times to free up our propellor which had become tangled with various debris. We had to clear empty bottles and pieces of wood before we could open lock gates fully
On a good note, the trip in and out of Birmingham was very scienic as shown below

Yesterday we had an easy day. In fact we didn't move. We walked into Knowle, which is a very pleasant village, bought fresh bread from the local baker, which proved to be the best bread we have ever eaten, returned to the boat and had a pub lunch at the Herons Nest
Today we had to travel to Copt Heath Wharf, where we will be leaving the boat for 2 nights as we have a wedding to go to in Stroud.
Wendy walked ahead to the Knowle 5 locks to open the 1st lock ready for the boat to enter. On arriving at the lock it was sealed with yellow tape and padlocks had been fitted.
Wendy returned to the boat and we went to the British Waterways web site www.waterscape.com to find what the problem was.
The Canal was closed from the Knowle locks to the Camp Hill locks in Solihull due to a fire at a furniture factory next to the canal, and the Environment Agency had closed the canal due to contamination. So we had to sit and wait.
At 3.00pm we were told the stretch of canal would be re-opening soon.
We set off just after 3.00, and arrived at the wharf just after 6.00pm.

We will continue the blog on Sunday. Thank you to everybody who has been watching our trip so far.

22nd May 2012

Long hot day today, wearing shorts and sandals for the first time.  We travelled 6 miles from Wootton Wawen to Kingswood Junction, negotiating 17 locks and a large number of narrow bridges. At Kingswood Junction we joined the Grand Union Canal, which is new territory for us.  Thankfully this is a wide canal and not too many locks, so some easy travelling over the next few days.   We stopped for an excellent lunch at the Black Boy near Knowle, on the Grand Union canal.  It is so nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the warm sunshine.  We finally moored up in a beautiful spot just before Knowle.


Picture below passing under the M42 at a much more leisurely pace

 Mooring on Grand Union near Knowle

Arrived at Wootten Wawen this afternoon.
Yesterday we travelled from Stratford upon Avon to Wilmcote. 3.5 miles but 17 locks. Luckily we had the assistance of Pete & Helen Morris, who joined us for the day. A big thank you for your help.
Today we only travelled 3 miles as we had a delay in the morning. The sun is shinning we are in short sleeves and sandals and in a pub!!!!

Crossing Edstone Aquaduct

Arrived at Sratford on Avon today.
Last night we stayed at Bidford on Avon, but had no signals whatsoever. So, we went to a local pub for an evening meal, really good £23 for two meals and drinks, oh and Wendy had a dessert.
Today we had a bit of excitement, on rounding a bend a narrowboat was blocking the river. As we approached he told us he was grounded. So we edged up to him, attached his rear rope and pulled him backwards off the riverbed. He was really interesting, turns out he was born on a narrowboat, and was transporting china gifts to Stratford.
So here we are. Tomorrow we will be photographed by lots of Japanese as we go from the Avon onto the Stratford canal. The lock seperating the two is always full of tourists. Hope we get it right.

Below is a photograph of the boat with the Holy Trinity Church behind us. (Shakespears final resting place)