Another fairly gentle day on the Coventry then Northern Oxford canals.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Around the turn at Hawkesbury, (180 degrees)

We didn't get going very early, but no problem, it was going to be a relatively short day.

I steered the first bit, then Alan took over and I got changed into my running kit. Alan dropped me off at a bridge in Nuneaton, and I set off on my run. I don't like running in warm weather, and it was starting to get warm so that I was grateful of any shade along the towpath. Alan picked me up again on the corner near Charity Dock. We decided to stop at Hawkesbury Junction for a quick lunch and I could have a bath/shower before we set off again.

 

Flamingo with Brighton (right hand side) [Dusty Miller]

Hawkesbury Junction is also known as Sutton Stop after a family of lock-keepers there in the 19th century. There is one shallow lock, a stop lock, which was to keep the waters of the Coventry Canal separate from the waters of the Northern Oxford Canal - each canal company was a separate entity, and as water was their business they were careful to make sure that another company didn't get their precious water. 

Dusty's painting based on the above [Copyright Dusty Miller]

Hawkesbury is also well known among boaters for a very difficult turn of 180 degrees underneath an elegant arching canal bridge, but also in front of a popular pub where drinkers can watch your mistakes. The ideal is to take a full length boat 'round in one', but there are photos of the boatmen of the past having a crew member holding a rope around a 'strapping post' to help them get around - so it's clearly not an easy thing to do. In practice we work on the principle of getting Flamingo round without completely cocking the whole thing up.

More than 50 years later Flamingo is where the pair were in the 1960s.

Once through the stop lock we tried to reproduce part of a photo by canal artist Dusty Miller that includes Flamingo in its Willow Wren carrying days, taken in the mid 60s.  Dusty went on to turn that photo into a painting, but artistic licence added another pair of boats, and changed the boating faiy seen with Flamingo.

I steered the first few miles, while Alan polished brass, then he took over. We managed to moor the boat somewhere near to the side just by Rose Narrowboat moorings - enough that the dogs could get on and off with both of the planks placed across to the bank. They don't seem to be able to cope with one plank - it's too narrow - but put both of them to the bank and they are OK with walking on and off. We took the dogs for a walk in the evening sunshine. Tomorrow just around the corner to Brinklow Boats for some steelwork on Flamingo.

Springwood Haven to Stretton Stop
Miles 14.7, Locks 1
Total Miles 354.7, Total Locks:346