Alvecote, home of the new hirers..

Atherstone to close Alvecote, Coventry Canal, 6 miles 0 locks

Nice fishermen today on the bank   and those acorns clung on all night!

An enjoyable run down to close to Tamworth.  We were undecided this morning on whether to go on through Tamworth to moor at Hopwas, a place I particularly like.  It’s odd really, I can never remember the details of the different canals I travel if it has been a while since I have travelled them, but certain places do actually register in the grey stuff!

The Marina at Alvecote looks really nice, and on the other side is a huge base for Canaltime boats.  We moored about half a mile away from them on a very attractive straight stretch approaching Ammington, the outskirts of Tamworth. 

Lucy had trotted the whole six miles today on the towpath, her eye has cleared up completely by the way.  This gave me a couple of hours to dangle the rod out while Lucy was happy to snooze on the rug beside me.  Ha there were lots of ‘learners’ coming by NP having done their first half mile of steering a narrowboat.. They were doing just fine, and came past me at snails pace.. wonder if they will keep that sort of speed up going past boats later in the week though!

With fish not biting.. maybe they were hiding from the new hirers  …  , I put on my hiking boots and set off in the direction of Alvecote and the remains of the Priory which can be seen from the canal.. Alvecote is an old mining village, and looks like one too, although their village shop and Post Office has gone.  The whole area around Alvecote has now been lanscaped and turned into a nature reserve with large lakes and smaller ponds.. a good amount of wildlife can be seen, it’s certainly worth a visit if in the area.

Well with no shop locally to where we were moored, I had to search out another… we have run out of potatoes of all things!  It’s been a while since we last had a tesco order you see.  I must arrange one for next week somewhere.. Anyway I ventured the other way and found a nice Tesco Express right by bridge 66, so mark that on your good ol’ Nicholson’s Guide and take off the one at Alvecote.

I’m watching that Ronnie Barker tribute on the BEEB at the moment.. I do hope they show the sketch about the four candles… or is it fork handles?!!.. gonna watch the rest while this blog posts itself.