Narrowboat

Today’s the day .................... for the fellowship of the Ring

The Ring in this case is the Warwickshire Ring and that’s where I was going to be for the next week – on a narrowboat called the Wild Goose.

Readers of this journal will know that it’s something I do every year.  I meet up with four of my old Hull University mates and we spend the week exploring some bit of the canal network.  Life slows down to a steady pace of 4 mph or less which gives ample time to catch up with each other, eat, drink – as well as throwing in a bit of hard manual labour to keep us all on our toes.

This year we had decided on the Warwickshire Ring - a connected series of canals forming a circuit around the West Midlands.   The ring is formed from the Coventry Canal, the Oxford Canal, the Grand Union Canal and the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. It covers a total distance of 106 miles with 115 locks – and offers a wide variety of scenery from deepest rural to city centre.

The adventure was about to begin .....................