Wyken Basin to Stoke Golding

Today we are starting a short trip along the Ashby Canal – a sort of recompense for having to cut short our planned trip to Lincoln. We left our mooring at Wyken Basin around 9.30 in bright sunshine, a lovely October morning. Just before leaving, Steve discovered he had forgotten his wifi router, but he thought he could manage by tethering his phone.

Leaving Wyken Basin

We went through the stop lock at Hawkesbury – the only lock on this journey - and turned off the Oxford Canal onto the Coventry. Steve soon had the idea that if we rang our friend Christine (who lives alongside the canal) she might be able to give him a lift home to collect the missing router. (Although it had taken us over an hour to arrive at Chris’ house, it would only take 10 minutes to drive back to our house.)

Not only was Chris willing to do this, she also gave us coffee and cake – what a star!

So a little later than planned, we turned onto the Ashby Canal which was its usual peaceful self, though there were a number of boats about. 

There are a lot of reeds .........

.......... but improvements are being carried out ...........

........in some places.

The weather remained fine through the morning, but the clouds were building and the wind was rising. Sure enough just before 1 o’clock, it started to rain, but as it was lunchtime, we moored up at Burton Hastings for lunch. The rain soon passed and by the time we were ready to start off again, the sun was shining.

There was another shower around 3 o’clock, but again, it only lasted 15 minutes or so.

We moored for the night at Stoke Golding at 4.00. 

Duck Corner at Stoke Golding

After a cup of tea, I went for a walk up the hill to the village. The church, St Margaret of Antioch, was open, so I had a look round (and bought some jam). The church building is mediaeval and has some interesting features. 

The building needs some expensive work carried out, but meanwhile, the current congregation is actively involved in all sorts of activities in the church and the community.

Today’s totals:    1 lock   13.25 miles