Bartimaeus

Our cruising plans for the year have been significantly altered by the flooding in January, and the almost total lack of rain since.  When Nye decided to join us at short notice, I wondered if we could give him some interesting canal highlights. We considered heading down the Atherstone flight again, simply to turn around and come back.  Stories of boats becoming stuck in empty pounds and waiting hours for locks made us reconsider.

Nye seemed to thoroughly enjoy the gentle pace and generous helpings of young water birds and other creatures. A very short-notice, and short duration visit from Lesley and Ian added an extra interest too.  Spending several days exploring Coventry while using the boat as a base suited us all nicely.

Yesterday we dawdled back out of the City on electric drive in the sunshine.  We reached Hawkesbury Junction again with the batteries at 90%. Our route takes us under the bridge where Lesley and Ian waved us off, but I'd remembered that the canal there can be very congested, so I drove by looking for a mooring.

While reversing slowly back to the junction this morning, a resident boater and a canal worker both enjoyed telling me I was going the wrong way.  We went through the stop lock (a rise of several inches) and through the congested bit. I ran the diesel engine for the hour or so where we were near the M6.  By the time we'd reached Ansty, it was lunch time and the batteries were nearly charged (the sun finished the job during the afternoon).

During lunch another Ortomarine boat drove by.  We are all heading for an electric boat show a few miles along the canal, so the density of Ortomarine boats is bound to be increasing.

In the afternoon I suggested we have a look at Coombe Abbey Country Park about four miles away.  As I started to get the tandem out, something felt wrong - the back tyre was completely flat.  The tyre has a Kevlar lining, also used in bullet-proof vests, but this is no match for a hawthorn.  At least the source of the problem was easy to identify, so it didn't take long to fix and we were ready to go.

We started our visit with ice cream before exploring the grounds.  The ornamental lake seemed to be at a near normal level in front of the hotel buildings.

On the other side of the causeway, the much larger pool was clearly many feet below its normal levels.  Geese and ducks were waddling along the bed next to signs warning of deep water.

We took a stroll through the woods, impressed by the giant sequoia trees  Neither of us were inclined to join the Go Ape customers throwing themselves down zip lines in to large piles of wood chippings.