Niece needs help - Canal barge holiday

FullCircle

FullCircle

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Hi,
my niece is taking a barge from Loughborough for a week, and wants to get to Warwick, sort of.She has googled for charts of the canls/pilot books, but all seem to suggest ring tours, which she isn't keen on. Is there a publication that just lays out each canal as it is without suggesting how to go round in a circle?

Barge is 58ft......


....and she has not done any real boating before.

Ta


Jim
 
What about this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Nicholson-Inland-Waterways-Britain/dp/0007452640

Route looks pretty simple. Grand Union/River Soar south to Grand Union Leicester Section. Hang a a right at Foxton, through Husbands Bosworth and Crick tunnels Continue to Norton Junction then hang another right through Braunston Tunnel, right again at Napton junction and along Grand Union westwards to Warwick.

A week seems ambitious - there are lots of locks on the map!
 
FullCircle said:
Hi,
my niece is taking a barge from Loughborough for a week, and wants to get to Warwick, sort of.She has googled for charts of the canls/pilot books, but all seem to suggest ring tours, which she isn't keen on. Is there a publication that just lays out each canal as it is without suggesting how to go round in a circle?

Barge is 58ft......


....and she has not done any real boating before.

Ta


Jim
Click to expand...

Heavens, NARROWBOAT, please. A barge won't get through some of the locks.

Less effort if she went Trent and Mersey, Coventry, Birmingham and Fazeley, Grand Union.
Lookie here for a definitive answer:-
http://canalplan.org.uk/cgi-bin/canal.cgi

6 days at seven hours per day cruising.....
 
Simple for a linear trip:

Set out on a route, chosen for your liking (lots of locks, not many locks, tunnels, no tunnels etc)

At the end of day 3 turn around and start heading back.

Rings are great, and mean no repeat scenery, but do tie you to a timetable when you have the boat for a fixed time hire.
 
CanalPlan is your friend. Treat a lock as a mile, and we tend to do about 4 locks or miles an hour. Google canal maps, and several paper maps should pop up so she can get an overview.
 
FullCircle said:
Thanks for the help , I have linked her to this page.
Click to expand...

She's not boated before? Much?

Why does she want to go from Loughborough to Warwick? As mentioned, CanalPlan suggests its a full on one way trip in a week, with no time to smell the roses, or cope with delays. There and back it's two weeks, with no R & R.
 
If you're new to canal boating I guess it's easy to look at a map and think it's not far so easily do-able there and back in a week. She has yet to realise just how long it takes to get anywhere and that in itself is a huge part of the enjoyment with a very slow relaxing pace that allows you to completely unwind.
 
Ahem, you only have to ask Jim and I'll be happy to impart the knowledge of getting on for a quarter of a century of bashing around the canals of the Midlands!

Loughborough to Warwick and back in a week is a bit ambitious. Doable but hard work. The locks on the navigable river Soar are not quick to work, Foxton locks ditto especially if it's busy

With a large, enthusiastic and active crew happy to put in long days it'd be fine, but if it's a relaxing holiday she's after I'd go no further than Braunston and back, at the furthest

Shout, or point her my way, if in need of further info

Bru
 
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