A Visit from Ian and Carol.

Thursday 15th October, 2015 south of Nuneaton.
The same pair of geese, who had been clamouring for supper last night, turned up again for breakfast. They were not disappointed!

It was a fairly bright morning as we prepared to set off, but cloudy.

Our aim was to be at Hawkesbury Junction (known to the old boating folk as "Sutton Stop") to meet Ian and Carol for lunch at the Greyhound Pub. Ian was Legal Director at Bristow Helicopters and M's boss until he retired; they have stayed good friends.
We arrived at Hawkesbury in good time and filled up with water before going through the stop lock (all of 6in deep and designed to stop the Oxford Canal from stealing the Coventry Canal's water) and mooring temporarily outside the pub.

M walked in to the pub to book a table and was very taken with the warmth of the welcome that she received - in both senses of the word - there was a lively coal fire burning in the saloon and the staff were very friendly. Ian and Carol arrived at about 12:45.

They hopped on board MM for a short trip under the cast iron bridge and out on to the Coventry Canal to a place where we moored up and then walked back to the pub.

We had a lovely time together and the food in the Greyhound was excellent. We'll definitely go there again! Ian and Carol had to leave after lunch to continue their journey to Leeds, but we gave them a quick tour of MM before they left. It was great to have seen them.

We pushed on north for the rest of the afternoon and moored up for the night north of Marston Junction, south of Nuneaton.
Today: 7 miles, 1 lock and 3.9 hours.
Trip: 466 miles, 324 locks and 352.0 hours.