It rained overnight, but the back deck was dry - the hood works! After breakfast we investigated a rattling sound the engine developed yesterday. It turned out that one of the engine mounts was loose, which we duly tightened. We set off with the hood up, but in the knowledge that we had a tunnel coming up and we would need to lower it before we reached the entrance. We set off in light rain, and after a few miles, we stopped to drop the hood. We then reached the tunnel only to find it was bigger than any we had seen and the hood could have stayed up - grrr! Not only was the tunnel wide, but it was illuminated with couloured floodlights lighting up the roof.

 Cute horned beasts 

A vintage working boat and its butty followed us into the locks

We reached Rugby and stopped at a Tesco superstore to take on provisions. It made quite a change to have so much to choose from after a succession of visits to village Co-ops! We carried on through Rugby which turned out to be quite attractive - the canal skirts round the north and east of the town and is flanked by trees for most of the way. We had rain for most of the journey but by the time we reached the first lock at Hillmorton, it was fairly bright and dry.

 Angela in the rain, viewed by me from the dry covered deck

 As we entered the first of the three locks, the heavens opened and Angela bravely left the shelter of Banjo to operate the locks. It rained heavily for the rest of the afternoon, but eased off as we found a quiet spot in the country to moor for the night.

 This cow seemed fascinated by us as we moored

 The working boat and butty pass us by 

 Cows heading off into the sunset 

 Tonight's mooring 

Tomorrow we plan to join the Grand Union canal again at Braunston, before heading onto the South Oxford Canal, which will be the last canal we see before we move onto the Thames.

A hot sultry day

 An interesting British Waterways Yard

As it was a slightly cloudy start and the forecast was rain we put up the hood without the sides. Just before we set off, we saw a kingfisher whizz by. The sun broke through by 10am and we put the hood back down outside Springwood Haven Marina.

 A cute sheep

 Enjoying the sun in style

 Enterprising young rafters

The day got progresively hotter and by 11am we came across these lads who has made rafts out of builders merchants bags filled with polystyrene- very enterprising.

 Bizarre riverside scene

Charity Dock  was very interesting, with mannequins, fairground horses and all manner of statues. The above is a mere sample- fascinating!

 Turning onto the Oxford Canal at Hawksbury Junction

Important to get this turn right as, like many junctions, there were many people enjoying a drink in the sunshine and watching the boats.

 The old pumping house behing what appears to be an old police station

 A cute calf

 Straight channel with the M6 in the distance

 A bridge to nowhere

We had a heavy downpour at 4pm so quicky put up the roof cover- the rain was very welcome as it cooled the temperature from 30degs to 25 degs. It didn't last long though and by 5pm it was bright and sunny again.

 G taking it easy at tonight's mooring

For one of the few times on this trip we sat on the bank in the evening sunshine, watching boats go by and being delighted by a family of moorhens.

 Another cute chick with doting parent

This little family were delightful with doting parents and three black fluffball chicks. There was also what we guessed to be a big sister who was lending a hand with the babies.

Sunset

A lucky day - 13 locks and 13 miles

 Crossing the River Tame on an aqueduct

We jumped up at 06:00, ready for an early start to try to beat the crowds to the next lock. By the time we set off, a couple of boats had passed us, but it was otherwise quiet. We travelled towards Tamworth in a cool breeze passing through some lovely countryside. We reached Tamworth and turned off what had become the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, onto the Coventry canal.

 A queue for a lock but we are in front!

We reached the first lock of the day with only one boat in front of us. By the time we left the lock, the queue had grown to 3 boats, and it was still only about 08:00. We had expected Tamworth to be somewhat urban or industrial, but it was quite different, with pretty gardens, parks, and lots of trees.

 A very cute and tiny moorhen chick

 Traditional working boats

 Pooley Fields Heritage Centre

We saw this brightly coloured wheel which looks as though it probably came from a mine, but there was nothing on the canalside to give away what the site was about.

 Horses!

This field had several shire horses in it, one of which visibly jumped at the wash from Banjo as we passed by. Can't be much fun being a horse in a waterside field if you are scared of water!

 A dancing white goose chick

 Tonight's mooring near Nuneaton

We stopped in Atherstone to take on water, and to nip to the shops, lured by a sign telling us that a shop was "1 minute's walk away". Angela stayed with the boat while I went in search of ice creams. After a 15 minute walk(!) I reached - you guessed it - another Co-op! We pressed on and finally came to rest just south of Atherstone, a few miles north of Nuneaton. A lovely quiet spot with views over the countryside with only the occasional train in the distance disturbing the silence.

Another beautiful sunset

We plan another early start and long day tomorrow as we push on towards Braunston and the start of the Oxford canal.

Few miles but hood completed

 A cute moth

We awoke to a morning which was dull and cool, and was heralded by clattering noises from behing the hedge next to Banjo. It soon became much noiser as a pile driver started up - we were moored next to the site of a new marina, and construction was in full swing. We moved off after breakfast, heading for our rendezvous with Hoodman.

 A fabulous house in Whittington

We moored in a spot in Whittington, which was near a bridge and which had somewhere for Hoodman to park hs car. We then called him, and gave him the details of how to find us. After about an hour, he duly appeared and got stuck in to what was forecast to be about 1.5 hours work. While he did this, we headed into the village to get some food fom yet another Co-op, returning to the boat to find work still in progress.

 The butty Australia, being towed by Kangaroo

Many boats passed us as work progressed, and we recognised many of them from the festival in Burton on Trent. Progressively, we were losing the advantage we had gained in setting off on Sunday, with the consequence that we would probably be behind them at the next lock. We perhaps shouldn't have worried too much since Hoodman was still working into the early evening! Finally the hood was finished and we bade Hoodman farewell, with a few helpful suggestions about work scheduling and communications!

 A strange door in a bridge

We set off at about 18:30, and travelled a few miles in the evening sunshine, with the aim of stopping just short of Tamworth.

 Cruising through a firing range

We passed through some beautiful woodland marred only by warning signs about the dangers of entering the firing range! We steered clear...

 A canalside pillbox

 The completed hood

We found a mooring in the country and tied up. By this time Banjo was covered in swarming flying ants. They were everywhere and started to swarm on us if we stood still. We re-build the hood which we had had to remove to pass through a succession of low bridges, and you can see it above in all its glory. We have a lot to learn about the handling of the hood, but it should make travelling in heavy rain a bit more pleasant. We plan to kick of early in the morning, putting in a long day to try to make up some lost time, and to slip past some of the boats which passed us today.

Hoodman

And finally, we include, by popular request, a picture of the illusive Hoodman. It isn't very clear, but like Bigfoot, he is notoriously difficult to capture on film!

Traffic Jams

Barton Marina's waterside shops and restaurants

We were up, dressed and breakfasted by 08:30, ready for Hoodman. At 09:44 he phoned to say that he wasn't coming - Grrrr! After a protracted discussion, the visit is now re-scheduled for tomorrow, again. We considered whether we should stay put in the marina, or take off to beat the mass exodus from the festival which would lead to congestion at the locks. We decided to go, stopping only to nip to the Co-op in the nearby vilage and to top up the water tank. We left our mooring and pushed out onto the canal.

Part of the queue for the first lock

It wasn't long before oncoming boats shouted that there was a jam at the next lock, with 18 boats waiting. Sure enough, we passed through a bridge about half a mile from the lock and met the back of a queue of boats. The bank was too overgrown to be able to get onto dry land which meant we all had to shuffle about trying to hold station for a considerable time until getting close to the start of the queue. The queue slowly moved forward and after about 2.5 hours we made it into the lock.

Hard to see here, but this cute cow had a mohican!

Fradley Junction

Finally we were moving and whilst every lock had a queue, there were no further massive delays. We reached Fradley junction which now had rather more people, having a drink and gongoozling, than when we were here at 7 in the morning last time.

Fradley junction from the Coventry Canal

We turned left into the Coventry Canal, and after opening the swing bridge which crosses the start of the canal, we started to leave the crowds behind. We motored on for a few miles, into the open countryside (accompanied by railways and the M6), until we passed Streethay where we found a quiet spot to moor up for the night. Further communication from Hoodman confirmed his intention to complete the job wherever we wanted tomorrow. I really hope we will be including a picture of the finished hood tomorrow.

Buses and Vikings

 More festival boats

We were ready at 08:30 for Hoodman to arrrive, but alas no sign of him. Angela walked to the village to get the papers and on return, we sat in the sun and read them. About 2 hours later, Hoodman did turn up - wonders will never cease - and set about fitting the hood. It soon became clear that the job would not be completed today, and a retrun tomorrow would be required - will this ever end? We left him to it and went of to catch the bus to the festival site.

 Angela transfixed by so many firemen

We had a white knuckle ride into Burton, with a bus driver who appeared to be running late and was hell bent on making up lost time. We changed buses in Burton and found that half the people on the bus were heading for the festival and the other half were offering advice on the quickest way to walk once we stopped! We found our way to the gate and joined today's much larger crowd, and we set about looking at the stalls we had missed yesterday. Whilst wandering about, we bumped into Ken and Iris for the 3rd time this trip. Angela enjoyed watching a group of fireman climbing a ladder in an attempt to climb as high as everest!

 The Vikings arrive - from the Craft tent??

Burton on Trent's innovative transport system

 We caught the shuttle bus back to the bus station and then headed back to the marina by conventional bus - a lot quicker than yesterday's trek. Hoodman was still working, but at least we could see the hood almost finished, We are assured that by 10am tomorrow, it will be finished! In the evening Niall, a collegue of mine, and his wife Chris collected us and took us to a delightful pub in Tutbury for dinner. We had a lovely time and are now feeling very full! Tomorrow, we plan to set off in Banjo, complete with hood, and start the journey south again, back down the Trent and Mersey and then on to the Coventry Canal.

The Route March

 A cute cockerel

It was a cool and grey view across the marina when we woke this morning. We decided to do some housekeeping and set about cleaning the boat. The good thing about a small boat is that this only takes about an hour, and so we were ready to head off to the IWA festival by mid morning. We had decided to walk since the festival site was only a couple of miles along the towpath, and there would be lots of boats to see en-route. The towpath is on the opposite side of the canal to the marina, so we had to head in the wrong direction initially, to get to the road, leading to the nearest bridge. As we headed towards the bridge over the canal, we spotted the bird above, sitting on the knee of a guy on a bench in his garden. This bird was so tame, that they take it on holiday and have even taken it for walks along the beach! On reaching the canal, we found it strangely quiet with no people or boats in sight. We struck out heading east, enjoying some lovely countryside albeit accompanied by the drone of the nearby A38 traffic. After a while we were surprised that we still hadn't seen any boats moored since we knew they were moored 2 deep for about a kilometer either side of the site. To cut a long story short, we did finally reach the site, but only after walking for about 5 miles! Somehow we had both mis-calculated the distance!

 Boats festooned with bunting

When we did reach the moored boats, the festival mood was much in evidence with bunting covering the boats and most of the houses along the bank. People from the houses had set up stalls selling cakes and BBQ food and there were lots of people wandering about.

 Going nowhere fast

The moored boats reduced the canal to a narrow channel only wide enough for a single boat. Marshalls were controlling the flow of boats in each direction but even so, it was very slow going for anyone trying to get through the town.

 A viking settlement

Once into the festival we headed for the food court, bought coffee and danish and then sat down and recovered from our unexpected hike. We made contact with Rosemary and Jim who we met in Leicester and knew were at the festival. We met up and exchanged stories and they told us about their adventure on the Trent, becoming grounded on a mud bank and waiting 9 hours for the tide to change and refloat them. Scary stuff. There were all manner of stalls and sideshows including a complete viking settlement and terrier racing.

Brewery shire horses

After watching a parade of fine shire horses from the nearby breweries we then set off back to the marina - in a taxi! Tomorrow Hoodman is due - will we see him?.....