Kingsbury water park 28/7/12

After an extended 'rest' period between jobs, I managed to get a final boat trip in (the trip I was going to do three weeks ago which was aborted due to the flooded Trent at Wychnor) to the Dog and Doublet (on the Curdworth flight on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal) via Alrewas (overnight stop).  

I managed to get to Alrewas in six hours for an overnight stop - decided to stay in Alrewas rather than carry on to Fradley due to the need for supplies and cash machine - the co op at Alrewas is very handy as are the two pubs. I felt guilty about stopping in Alrewas so walked to Fradley (two miles) for a pint at the Swan. I helped a crew of ladies down the Fradley flight on the way back.  

On Saturday morning I was joined by a friend Allan and we set off up to Fradley and then down the Coventry canal at the junction opposite the Swan Inn.

First impressions of the Cov were how busy it was (extremely), how poor was the vision due to overgrown trees (there must be a lot of near misses on this section) and how shallow it was (the springer is not deep drafted but still hit the bottome a lot).

We made the bottom of the Curdworth flight in six hours. Total boat mileage from Findern is a surprising 29.5 miles.

The Dog and Doublet is pretty isolated, but, this didn't stop us from looking for another ale house - we were just about to give up when we spotted a leaflet promoting a real ale festival at kingsbury water park. The railway was even operating a shuttle service from the park entrance to the beer tent, but, we walked it anyway.

The beers were very good and cheap and we will watch out for the festival next year.

The walk back to the boat was a bit scary as we had to find the tunnel under the M42 in the dark and then a path back to the canal - without a torch this was difficult but I used the iphone maps app which helped locate the canal.

We set off early on Sunday morning (7.30am) not expecting to get back to Findern by Sunday evening, however, we pushed on (upsetting a few moorers along the way - although I don't think we were going very fast - the engine is very noisy). We got back to findern at 6.30pm after 11 hours solid boating - we were very lucky with the locks.     

 The entrance to the new Streethay Marina

Position 'A' mooring at Alrewas

 
 Kingsbury Water Park - Echills Wood Railway beer festival

 The entrance to the Birmingham and Fazeley canal at Fazeley Junction

 The dog and doublet pub on the Curdworth flight

 Drayton Manor Park bridge

 The 'infamous' Peel Wharf

The Tame Otter at Hopwas

Second solo trip 20/7/12

Made an overnight trip to Branston water park to meet Tim and Jane on their way back from Coventry Basin.
First time I have walked around the lake - a very pleasant mile walk and a bit of an eye opener about how hi-tec fishing has become - one angler had a radio controlled bait boat with built-in fish finder.
Didn't realise that there were well maintained toilets at the car park and the path that goes under the A38 and leads to the village complete with post office, pet shop, general stores, chippy, chinese take away and pub.
Confident enough to do a longer trip solo now.