Brian stages a walk to rule protest

Brian consults a fellow ship's dog about walking to rule

The world wide web is struggling to reach Cropredy, the pretty Oxfordshire village where we moored last night so it's a belated blog.
The highlight of an otherwise quiet day was that Brian staged a 'Walk to Rule'.
"I have been in communication with my brother ship's dogs about the amount of walking we are being asked to do between locks which is well beyond the terms and conditions of our pet-dog contracts," he told us. (We understand dog-gerel of course.)
"We are being asked to walk backwards and forwards in extreme heat conditions and even to assist in locking duties by having our leads tied to the lock beams in the expectation that we will assist in pulling. This change in our duties has been imposed by management without proper consultation.
"Therefore my brothers and I have decided that our pay rates should be increased by two biscuits a day and that we should have a compulsory rest period of one hour at midday. Unless we can reach agreement we have agreed by a show of paws to walk to rule."
Which he did, refusing to walk quickly, stopping to sniff whenever possible and taking frequent toilet breaks.
He now gets two biscuits a day!

Slow pet for a slow boat

Meet Thomasina the tortoise; arguably the perfect pet for a 4mph canal boat. After all what other pet can't out-run the boat and will happily live on dandelion, clover and weeds freely available in towpath verges?
Thomasina is 67, which is barely middle-aged for a tortoise, and has been with her carers for 40 years now. Today she was enjoying the sun and a dandelion snack at Napton.

Where the buffalo roam

"Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day."

Not Kansas but Napton where herds of buffalo roam the canalside fields and the skies certainly weren't cloudy all day today.
Napton is at the start – or end depending on which way you're going – of the Southern Oxford Canal which winds round the edge of Napton Hill and its landmark windmill before climbing the flight of locks to the canal summit.
We pulled up just before the locks for our now customary high noon siesta then set off for the stiff climb up the hill to the windmill. It's private but the view is stunning – a breathtaking panorama across seven counties.
Later, with some buffalo ice cream safely in the fridge we set off up the locks – stopping near the top for a 15 minute breather to hear The Archers (and a dramatic episode it was, too, at least by Archers standards).
Now moored up on the twisting summit stretch. Last night we watched two little owls, mother feed her young, in a tree. Tonight we've been watching fledgling swallows learn to fly and land. Can't beat it!

A late night and an early morning

We went on just a tad too long last night, finishing off the Coventry Canal – and passing lots of moorings on the way – and pressing on in the gathering gloom through Sutton Stop and onto the North Oxford. Where moorings can be hard to find - especially in a deep draughted boat because the canal edges are often shallow.
"You didn't tell me that," said the skipper "when I said 'let's keep going'!" In the end we dug ourselves in on a bend, with the bows a couple of feet out and the stern hanging six feet out into the channel. Oh, and pylon power cables overhead and the motorway a background roar. We were too knackered to worry. A couple of large glasses of wine and off to bed.
This morning we set off smartly (for us) well before nine to head for lunch and some Tesco shopping at Rugby. Which, of course, only served to give the skipper more ammunition for her long running "I-love-Lidl" campaign. So the next mooring has to be within walking distance of a Lidl. I hope I don't die of starvation before we find one.
Tonight we're in Braunston where we move briefly onto the Grand Union before heading onto the southern Oxford towards, er, Oxford.

PS Brian fans will be pleased to know that a member of his fan club recognised him as we passed through Rugby. "Ooh, it's Brian the Dog I recognised" she exclaimed with delight.
He's been basking in the glory all afternoon. Or is he just basking in the sun?

Charity Dock

A wonderfully bizarre scene at Charity Dock on the Coventry. Long may the place survive in its utterly eccentric, shambolic and indescribably chaotic fashion.

Nuneaton mess

I have never seen so many dead plastic bottles floating in the cut as we did in Nuneaton. There were hundreds; clusters at every bridge hole and more drifting along in the stream.

Now it would be easy to blame the scrotes but if that's the reason then Nuneaton-ites must have a massive consumption of energy drinks. My reckoning is that a) there was a bottle race at some point in the past or b) a strange physical phenomenon known as 'bottle clustering' causes it. I'm going for this one - time to commission some research.
On a healthier note than high-carb energy drinks, Nuneaton also boats an astonishing number of allotments, most of them carefully tended, along its canalsides.
And compared with the last time we passed through, the town does seem to be on the up. Slightly. All the same it does seem to turn its back in embarrassment on the canal and tries to pretend it's not there instead of embracing it as a community resource.

Third time lucky?

I'm not saying! Whatever luck we've got left with Tug Harry I'm not going to waste on any casual claims.
I thought we were okay after the first false start when I fixed the blown head gasket and had the water pump rebuilt...only to get no further than Tamworth again before the engine started misbehaving and we returned once more to base.
Yesterday, with re-routed fuel lines and the fuel injectors all cleaned and checked we set off again.
And today we are ten miles and thirteen locks beyond Tamworth, moored up and hiding from the 30 degree heat a short distance beyond the eleven lock Atherstone flight. And I can report that, so far, the engine hasn't missed a beat. Touch wood.
Curiously the last time we did this trip down the Coventry Canal from Streethay it was mid-winter, the snow began to fall and the canal was freezing up around us. This time we're travelling in the hottest days of the year. Yesterday we moored up in the afternoon and travelled again until 9.30 in the cool evening. Today it was already hot at breakfast time and as I pressed on through the Atherstone locks the temperature soared - in the air and in the crew who were threatening mutiny near the end of the flight.

It was a long, hard haul up the locks. They were busy with boats and running short of water in places as a result. At one lock a hire boat coming out and us going in were both grounded and only ten minutes of rope hauling and pole-ing got us both through.
The top lock at Atherstone looks a sadder sight than when we last passed through - the resident lock-keeper gone and his eccentric weather forecast notes gone too. And the canal coal yard apparently shut as well.
But it's a sunny day, the boat's running well - at the moment - and no time for grumbling. When the sun sinks a little we'll head off again for a few more cool evening miles.