Aboard the Molly May

Looking for something different that would engage our teenagers and take their focus away from Snap chat streaks and Wifi codes. You receive a friendly welcome from the staff at the yard and your boat ours was Martin is ready and waiting to go. We were narrow boat novices as the poor man drinking his…

4th May- 18th May Not so much a log as an end of journey report. Yesterday morning, as we worked our way back to the yard was to prove one of the coldest May days for years. It also rained heavily, apart from that we only needed to don wet weather gear for 3 hours…

Woke at 7am to a beautiful sunny morning with just a trace of mist over the canal burning off in the sunshine. Got underway by 8:15 – did our first ever staircase lock at Bascote Wharf – (a bit of a muddle, but quickly sorted with help from a more experienced crew). Over a very…

I hope you will find the following a useful insight to the route down to Stratford Upon Avon, where you should expect to be each night and roughly how long your cruising day will be. Having travelled along the Stratford canal twice in the last few months I have thoroughly enjoyed this route and would…

We’d just spent an hour with John from the boatyard learning how to handle our hired narrowboat and, crucially, the locks. When he asked “Do you feel ready to go off on your own?” we confidently dismissed him. However, when he added: “Where are you going?” and I replied cheerfully “Banbury”, he smiled a wry…

Sections of the Coventry, Oxford, Grand Union and Birmingham and Fazeley Canals are components in the Warwickshire Ring which, despite the almost constant proximity of conurbation and industry, manages to carve a surprisingly rural route through manicured fields and ancient meadows for much of its length. The Saltisford Arm above the two Cape Locks is…