A Lone Telegraph Pole and an Oxymoronic C&RT Notice.

Monday 3rd June 2019 at Brinklow.
After yesterday's intermittent showers, it was great to wake up to a clear blue sky (even if it didn't last).

M, while washing up after breakfast, was pleased to see a C&RT gentleman on a bicycle checking boat licences. M complimented him on his work - it turned out that his name is Ed, he is a full-time employee of the C&RT and his job is pedalling up and down the Caldon, Ashby, Coventry and bits of the T&M canals, checking licences. What a super way to earn your living!, said M.
We set off soon after through the countryside.

Beside the canal, we saw a blast from the past - a solitary telephone pole, sadly deprived of its many individual wires that used to carry our telephone calls from place to place, in a crackly sort of way.

By the appearance of detritus in the water, including a buggy, numerous plastic bottles, beer cans, a garden seat, a car tyre, etc., we knew that we were approaching Nuneaton...
...It was good to be past Nuneaton and back out into the countryside.
We had already decided to bypass the Ashby Canal, with its 22 miles of lock-free cruising - much as we would have liked to visit Bosworth Field again and the heritage railway, but we will have to save that for another day.
The old Engine House at Hawkesbury, or "Sutton Stop" as it was known in the old days, marks the junction of the Coventry Canal with the North Oxford.
R and MM negotiated the tight turn under the cast iron bridge over the junction (on the right in the photo). On the left of the picture is the "Greyhound" pub, recently voted the "Canal Pub of the Year" - and rightly so - it is excellent.

A typical example of the C&RT not knowing its *rs* from its elbow - the first and most important item when saving water is "Two in a lock" - in a narrow lock???

As we approached Brinklow, we passed the bridge spanning the entrance to the "Brinklow Arm" that used to take the canal right into the centre of the village. The entrance bridge is still there but sadly the arm was filled in long ago.

This evening's mooring is at Brinklow. We like it here and have only moored here four times before!

It is a very pleasant walk into the village across the fields and past the remains of its "mott and bailey" castle. Tomorrow, we have promised ourselves breakfast in "Pumpkins Cafe" in the village.
Today: 14 miles, 1 lock and 5.7 hours.
Trip: 56 miles, 22 locks and 24.5 hours.