Hail to the Hive!

Our snail pace journey continues as we pass through beautiful North Warwickshire today.

We awoke to another beautiful morning of clear blue sky and spring colours everywhere. But knowing a cold snap is imminent we were determined to make the most of today and make some headway on our way to see family and friends not seen in five years.

As we headed off there were lots of "good mornings" and friendly waves from both the people living on their narrowboats on the left and those in more traditional accommodation to the right. Made for a pleasant start and put me in a good mood.

As we rounded the bend and under a few road bridges we were back in the glorious English countryside and on a day like today it was superb. Splendid views that at 3mph were very easy to take in.

Now so far we had only done 3 canal locks back on the Trent & Mersey Canal when we very first started the journey a few days back.

BUT TODAY WE HAD ELEVEN TO DO!

The canal at this point goes through some rolling hills and is raised by 100 meters so we had to get in our groove and considering we are new to this we are starting to get into a rhythm that suits us and a pattern that works and makes sense for us. We are learning all the time.

Hive account@millycf1976 is getting good with the lock gates. They are a little heavy at times but even though she is little she is STRONG!

It really is amazing engineering and very simple to operate.

After 11 though we were feeling it and were glad the weather was good as it was all really pleasant and we felt very accomplished afterwards.

Doing the locks on our own with lots of people watching made us feel like we were really living the lifestyle now even though we are absolute beginners. All the boaters we have met so far have been very friendly and helpful. I hope that continues to be the trend.

In one side, let in the water and rise up to the next level and on the next lock.

Apart from the lovely scenery and the locks to negotiate we passed some very interesting looking boat yards.

All manner of different boats from english style narrowboats to what looks like a Dutch style one on a hard standing in the background. I can't imagine how that would squeeze through the narrow locks here unless it's river bound when completed.

Pretty cool location they have here also.

It's getting late and we've left the town of Atherstone and passed the visitors moorings already so eyes peeled for a spot hoprfully in a nice setting. ok I think this will do nicely