The sky last night

18:10 looking towards Polesworth after a showery day

Atherston Locks

 We were in the first of the Atherton flight of locks at 10:40 - looking back at lock 4

 ... and forward to lock 5 - we've been lucky - it's been one up and one down so far, so nice and easy

 and out into the countryside ...

... around lock 9 ...

 There's now a BW working boat in front of us so we go a little slower - but still do all 11 locks in just over 2-hours - not bad going at all!

 A strange set of houses and boats here

A deliberate spelling mistake?

the boat's in rather a sad state 

... just before Grendon Dock

 We've pulled in behind Moore 2 Life; a good mooring for the night ...

.. just after bridge 50 ...

 I wonder what that church is a few miles away on the hill?

A bright but chilly day to Atherstone

 The water points at Hawkesbury Junction must be just about the slowest on the system - it took nearly an hour to fill our tank!  So it was after 11 when George winded RnR and set off to catch me up - I'm walking ahead with Ann Moore 2 Life and both our 'Mollies'

 I walked a bit further than Ann and am sitting on the Ashby Bridge wall as they come through bridge 15

 Looking over the bridge down the Ashby - a lovely scene

 You may just be able to see the motor cycle on the right of this picture - it has L plates on it and a passenger on the back with no helmet!  Between here (bridge 15) and the next 3 miles we saw 4 more sights like this - one even had three lads on it - none wearing a helmet - so, so dangerous for them and for walkers and dogs.

 Here comes my knight in shining armour!

 The section of the Coventry Canal through Nuneaton is not the nicest - walkers don't even seem to want to look you in the eye, let alone speak and there is all sorts of rubbish in the water - here a mattress waiting for a propellor to come along!

 Starline Boats at Boot Wharf

 what looks like a header tank which may have 'fallen' from the allotments

 Moore 2 Life had rung to warn me of this boat, apparently a couple of days ago someone poured petrol over the roof, set light to it and then let off the ropes; it floated out into the channel and hit a narrowboat causing the front doors of the nb to also set alight. What kind of idiots do that sort of thing?

 Judkins Quarry and Mount Judd (Jeez) the spoil heap

 And we're eventually out into the countryside again - what a relief

 Hotel Boats Oak and Ash pass us ...

 ... as we approach the BW yard at Hartshill - this edge was crumbling when we passed through here last in December 2009...

 ... in fact the whole yard looks a bit sorry for itself.

Unusual old working boats as we near Atherton where we moored up above the top lock.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is rain, rain and more rain, so we (with Moore 2 Life) will stay on the 48-hour slots until Friday.

Onto the Ashby and back to Hawkesbury Junction

7 am at our mooring by bridge 41on Monday 24th ...

... and at 09:10 as we left ...

Ed and Lucy are walking with Molly and me!

Lucy is well balanced on that log!!

And here comes George to pick us up

Cows on the towpath as we approach Stretton Stop where we stopped for gas and water ...

... and on to Hawkesbury Junction where Ed is helping with that oh so deep lock  (Lucy)

No stopping here today - under that famous bridge ... (Lucy)

... and looking back at The Greyhound Pub ... (Lucy)

We're turning right towards Atherston (Lucy)

The Navigation pub at bridge 14 was boarded up last time we came this way - it's now been seriously vandalised.

Ed is chuffed with his photo on NB Scrumpy Jack!

... as we approach Charity Dock (Ed) ...

... although I've no idea how one would get into the dry dock! (Ed)

The mannequins are set for Halloween (Ed)

 Approaching bridge 15, once through we turn right  ... (Ed)

... onto the Ashby Canal ..
and continue through bridge number 1 (Ed)

We moored for the night between bridges 6 and 8

No idea what on earth this is begging for food just before we left the following day

St Botolph's Church in Burton Hastings in the distance as we pass through bridge 8 ...

... and diggers at work behind the long term moorings, but I couldn't make out quite what they were doing.

We need to wind (turn) to get back to the Coventry Canal and Hawkesbury Junction to meet up with Lucy and Ed's mum and dad for lunch at the pub - but we hadn't realised that the nearest winding hole was nearly 3 miles away!

Back onto the Coventry Canal now and once again

pass by Charity Dock - the figures are most amusing!

An early Christmas Tree ....

and an 'armless lady - at least she has a hat to keep her warm!

I certainly wouldn't want to meet him on a dark night, let alone at Halloween

Whoops, there she goes!

I love these neat canal cottages at the junction.

We met Mark and Ange and went into the Greyhound - we were lucky - it was 10 minutes to 3 when we arrived and they stop serving lunch at 3pm!! The food was even better than usual - delicious burgers, succulent steaks, slow roasted belly pork and posh fish fingers for Ed.

It was great to spend a couple of days with 2 of our grandchildren on board and we're looking forward to seeing them all again mid-November.