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.