Date: 19th July 2024

Canal: Grand Union

Direction: North

Locks: 5

Swing bridges: 0

Sun over the Grand Union Canal

The cruise:

Today promised to be warm and sunny but, in the end, it was very hot (possibly too hot for the task ahead).

We left our mooring in Kingswood early and John reversed the boat under a bridge, turned into Kingswood Junction, navigated past moored boat and took us through the narrow opening that had previously been a stop lock. We pulled up on the left and found the boating facilities. We used the CRT pump out; this was the first time we had found/used a public pump out and it worked really well. We also filled up our water tank and disposed of our rubbish, before turning the boat around and heading back onto the Grand Union Canal. All of the above might seem like small things but if you are a boater you’ll understand that completing these tasks is very reassuring and indicates a good day ahead.

Having completed all of our boat chores we headed north towards Knowle. We had passed quite a few boats earlier in the day but now the canal was very quiet, probably other people had the sense to move before the sun was at its zenith.

Cruising the canal on this hot and sunny day was a joy for us but Boasley decided that he wanted to sleep inside, in the shade, and to be honest I think he made a good decision. By midday we were very warm, so we moored up outside The Black Boy pub and enjoyed a pleasant lunch sitting in the shade of the pub garden.

We now had 5 locks to navigate through before reaching Knowle. We were lucky to find another boater (Mychelle) was behind us and so we were able to negotiate the locks together. To be completely honest, having sat on the back of our steel boat in the sun for a couple of hours and then having had lunch, I probably wasn’t in the best condition to work these locks and they were very hard work (I really struggled with the paddles and gates) but we got there in the end.

A short distance from the locks we found the mooring that we were aiming for and were really glad to finally put our feet up. Inside the boat was quite warm but we opened both hatches, removed all of the windows, switched on a desk fan and each used a cold flannel to cool us down.

I’d like to say that we had learnt a lesson from today’s cruse (don’t travel on a very hot and sunny day) but, despite us being extremely hot after the journey, it really was wonderful to spend a day in the beautiful sunshine.

Kingswood Junction

Knowle:

Knowle is a large, bustling, but picturesque village in Warwickshire. There are lots of boutique shops and a surprisingly large amount of medieval architecture is dotted throughout the village.

The Church of St. John the Baptist, St. Lawrence and St. Anne is well worth a visit. A 15^th century parish church, it is Grade I listed. With a peal of 8 bells, John is hoping to ring there on Monday.

Behind the Tudor building that contains the library is a restored Elizabethan style knot garden.

Overall, this village is a pleasant place to visit and to stroll around.

The Church of St. John the Baptist, St. Lawrence and St. Anne

Mooring in Knowle:

This really was a perfect mooring, quiet, with rural views and just a short walk away from the pretty village of Knowle. Mychelle (who we shared the locks with earlier) moored in front of us, after completing her own boat chores.

There was Armco, so we used chains to tie the boat up.

The towpath was a well maintained.

There was plenty of light for the solar panels.

The internet and TV were excellent.

Protecting the wood from condensation

Boat notes:

The fine weather that we have had this week meant that John was able to do a few jobs on the boat. The most important of these was to varnish some of the wood, so that it is protected from the inevitable winter condensation.

We always say that cruising is our favourite part of this lifestyle and I stand by this. However, whilst walking around Knowle today I became aware that we are also really lucky to be able to visit so many different places, whilst on our travels. We are seeing place that we would never have visited when living on the land.

Links:

Mychelle Colleary, Ambitious Underachiever (Edinburgh Fringe 2024)

The Black Boy Pub, Knowle