Hawkesbury Junction to Atherstone lock 10, 9.5 miles, 9 locks, 6 hours.

We left Hawkesbury at 8:20, another beautiful morning.  We had been woken at 3:00 a.m. by a passing canal boat, why would anyone be travelling at that time in the morning (Mike do not get any ideas!!!)

As we travelled passed Bedworth we came across a slightly different take on garden gnomes.

So if you ever wondered what happened to shop mannequins when the pass their sell by date - you now know!!

We the passed Excellence A Float, where we hired our second holiday canal boat from - would recommend if anyone ever wants to hire.

There was a bit of a queue when we get to Atherstone top lock, but not too bad, there are 11 locks in the flight, but we stopped after lock 9 - food was required.  

As you can see George has been assisting at the locks.

As a passer by pointed out, he clearly considers himself to be in supervisory mode!  Which left me with all the work to do!

Brinklow to Hawkesbury Junction, 9 miles, 1 lock, 1swing bridge, 4 hours

A bit of a disjointed day today, but before that just need to share that it is not just me that ends up biking twice as far - poor Rodney ended up doing 20 miles yesterday, as the route he had planned had a rather large ford in it, which is not a good idea on a fold up bike, so a detour was required. We did get to TGI Fridays, oh and B&Q!!

We set off at 8:00 this morning to get in an hours cursing before Rod had to go to Crick to do a handover of Michael's boat to the new owners.  It was a lovely bright start.

From Crick he was then off to Wharf House to make a couple of purchases for By The Way - any guesses as to what the main purchase was, there is a clue in the picture below (spot the addition).

I took the opportunity to go for my last run before next weekend, managed 10.5 miles which I was really pleased with.  As I was running along one of the country lanes, there was an old guy outside his cottage with a scythe, he shouted out "what are you running away from" I felt like saying you with that scythe in your hand!! (was like something from a horror film - slight exaggeration!).

We were aiming to get to about 2 miles past Hawkesbury Junction, (this is the junction of the Oxford and Coventry canals) but as you can see the sky was get pretty dark, and we decided to take the first spot we saw, which turned out to be a very good idea, as just as we stopped the heavens opened.

George has quickly got back into the swing of boat life, Mr Chilled!

Willoughby to Brinklow - 3 locks, 12 miles, 1 tunnel, 5 hours

What a difference a day makes, yesterday basking in sunshine - today full wet weather gear!

We set off today at about 8:30 it had stopped raining but as you can see the sky looked pretty ominous, but we can't be accused of being fair weather boaters - this is in truth due to the fact that we need to get to Kings Bromley marina by Friday next week as we are booked in for the following week.  

On a very selfish and personal note I am glad the temperature has dropped - I know no one else will be except Liz - this is much better running weather and with just over a week to the Great North Run I need all the help I can get!!!

We travelled through the locks at Hillmorton, we were very glad we were heading down, as there were a couple of boats coming up together that were getting in a right muddle - boys weekend - looked like it could get very messy.

As we came through Rugby we saw a boat that was moored  next to us at Yelvertoft, they have been out for a month and are heading back - it's a small world.

We then headed towards Newbold tunnel, I dutifully turned all the lights on inside the boat, I must pay more attention to the guide book next time, there was no need it was a very short tunnel!!

We then heard a noise that we had not heard for a few weeks, the East Coast mainline!  We are back to running along side the railway.  Was a nice reminder of the fact I don't have to go to work:-)

We eventually found a lovely spot to moor at and after a bacon buttie for lunch Rod got on the bike to get the van, he has about 11.5 miles to go, hope his route is better planned than the one he sent me on!

We are then off to Rods favourite shop B&Q Superstore (it's a boy thing!) the saving grace is that there is a TGI Friday's opposite - guess where we are off to for tea.

Menorca to Willoughby

We had a lovely last couple of days in Menorca and it would seem we have brought the beautiful weather back with us.

We discovered a fantastic restaurant in Punta Prima, where we had Chateaubriand - yum yum!

Whilst we were sad to leave Cala Torret

We were also looking forward to getting back to By The Way and picking up Georgie B!!

We landed in Manchester late Sunday night, so Monday was taken up with picking up George and getting the boat ready to go.  If was a really long day so we took the opportunity to go to the Kings Head in Napton as Monday night is steak night - this was washed down with a strawberry and lime Koppenburg which we got the taste for on holiday.  That is it now for me I am tee total until I complete the Great North Run on Sunday 15th.

We left Wigrams Turn Marina early on Tuesday morning and cruised for just a couple of hours, as I needed to go to the hospital in Leicester for a check up on my shoulder - consultant was really pleased with my progress and has discharged me - yippee!

Rod had to work today, so we set off really early about 7:00, what a beautiful morning.

We travelled through Braunston junction.

Then on another couple of miles stopping at 8:45.

Rod set up the GPS so I could bike to get the van.  I ended up on a bit of a mystery tour, he may be trying to tell me something, as it took me to completely the wrong place resulting in me biking twice as far as I should have meaning I was gone twice as long!!!  He doesn't get rid of me that easily I found my way back.

Menorca

Having a fantastic time.  The weather has been beautiful.

Amazing how quickly we got here, we left Mike and Liz's at 5:45 and by lunch time we had dropped everything at the Villa and were having lunch at the local bakery.

It was then back to the Villa to unpack, suddenly Mike and Rodney were worn out!!!!

We had a couple of days lazing by the pool and then were lucky enough to have a couple of days on a beautiful boat, very similar to below.

We were thoroughly spoilt and had a great time.  Only a bit different to By The Way!!!!

Saturday night we went to watch trotting races, was different, but great fun......no winners though for us.

We had a lovely Chinese on Saturday night and spent the night on the boat.  On Sunday we went to Cata Galdana, and went a shore for lunch via the rib.

Liz and I have tried to be good and have managed 3 runs, with varying degrees of success, it is very hot and quite hilly!!!

Thank you so much to our kind hosts, we had a fantastic time.

We have had a couple of relaxing days by the pool. 

 We are having a sight seeing day today, so will hopefully post another update before we come back, but unfortunately Internet access is limited.

Napton-on-the-hill

We have spent the week moored at Napton.  Rod had to travel to Manchester on Tuesday and we were booked into Wigrams Turn Marina from Friday in preparation for a weekend in Oxford followed by just under two weeks in Menorca.

We were initially really gutted as when we did this stretch a couple of years ago we stopped at the Bridge which is right on the canal, but it has changed management and was not serving food in fact it hardly looked open.  However, we found a great pub in the village called the Kings Head, did a fantastic Sunday lunch, so if you are walking in this area then would definitely recommend, but you need to book it is really popular.

Some more DIY was completed with some sanding and painting of the side hatches - some how I always seem to get more paint on me than the thing I am painting, but though I say so myself looked pretty good when it was finished.

Chris biked over from Swinford on Thursday which was really nice.

Then we met Wendy, Richard, Kerry and Mark in Kettering on Friday night, which was lovely -Kerry did   really well in her A-levels and has her first choice uni place.  Good luck to Mark with his results on Thursday.

Then we headed off Saturday morning to Oxford for a surprise 50th get together.  On the way we stopped to get a life jacket for George in preparation for his trip to the Norfolk Broads next weekend.  It would be fair to say he was not overly impressed!!

We then arrived in Cuddesdon near Oxford, where we were meeting Tania, Michael, Richard and Di (aka Dobbie), and Mandy who thought she was just meeting Tania and Michael.  Due to problems on the M25, Tania and Michael were delayed which meant Rod, Richard, Di and I were left hiding from Mandy at one end of the pub, whilst the staff endeavoured to restrict her movements!!  Won't bore you with all the details but at one point Di and I were hiding in the ladies and Rod was suggesting we all climbed out of the window :-)

Luckily we were successful and Mandy was suitably surprised.

We had a great afternoon and evening.

George was handed over to Tania and Michael, I would like to say he was upset to be left but it wouldn't be true, he was with his best friend Kayla, he didn't even notice us go :-((

Next update will come from the sunny island of Menorca.

Claydon to Priors Hardwick 5 locks, 9 miles

We moved from Claydon Bottom lock to Claydon Top Lock early Tuesday morning, as Rod was working for 3 days this week.  As we set off at 6:45 we completed the 5 locks by 8:00 which was pretty good going - I hope you are impressed Mr Lake.  A great spot with fantastic views over open fields.

The boat that moored behind us had a Border Terrier- Molly - who we established was a distant relative of George, they both have Dandyhow in them, the guy had a copy of her pedigree Rod was gutted as we haven't got George's with us, so he wasn't able to show them what a good pedigree really looks like!!

I have been honing my DIY skills, varnishing woodwork and painting scratches on the Hull - who'd have thought!

Friday we both went back to Swinford, to catch up with a few friends.  Rod got back on his road bike with Chris (thanks chris for a great morning) and I got my hair cut, and had a couple of coffees in Costa - it's a hard life :-)

We then set off this morning for Priors Hardwick, with a water stop at Fenny Compton.  There are no locks on this stretch, the canal twists and turns around the hills and gets very narrow in places, but is truly picturesque.  

Glad we didn't meet anyone coming down this stretch, known as Fenny Compton Tunnel.

We moored up at a lovely spot, just room for us.

I am  now in full training for the Great North Run (and in major panic mode, not helped by the email received yesterday telling me my event pack was in the post!!!), so I ran back to Claydon for the van 7.75 miles of nothing but ups and downs - what would I give for some nice flat runs.

The tow path has switched sides so whilst I was off to get the van Rod was able to paint the scratches on the other side.  

Off to Napton On The Hill tomorrow.