best route

[OGGDOG]

hi folks only 2 days to go and i am not sure what route to take

we are going from rugby and would like peoples comments on the best route to go for a weeks cruise, i have looked at going up the Ashby then down to Braunston.

Would appreciate as many views as possible

[adam1uk]

It depends what you want from your hoilday, and how busy you want to be.

 

Personally, I've never seen the appeal of "lock-free cruising", which so many people regard as a selling point, so I'd find the Ashby and back to Braunston rather dull.

 

I'd suggest doing the Warwickshire Ring, which is a fairly busy week. You get both wide and narrow locks (including the flights at Hatton and Lapworth), the centre of Birmingham, and plenty rural areas too.

 

Alternatively, decent out-and-back routes would include: Fradley Junction and return; the South Oxford to Banbury and return, or through Braunston and up the Leicester Line to Welford and return.

 

But without knowing whether you want an active week or a slow one, it's difficult to advise.

[RLWP]

I'd suggest doing the Warwickshire Ring, which is a fairly busy week. You get both wide and narrow locks (including the flights at Hatton and Lapworth), the centre of Birmingham, and plenty rural areas too.

 

 

Just to add to that, if you are new to this I would do the Knowle, Camp Hill and Garrison flights rather than Lapworth, Farmers Bridge and Aston. It's a lot less locks and time. When we used to hire and were well crewed up we have done the Warwickshire ring and half of the Ashby in a week. A nice cruise.

 

Richard

[stewey]

Just to add to that, if you are new to this I would do the Knowle, Camp Hill and Garrison flights rather than Lapworth, Farmers Bridge and Aston. It's a lot less locks and time. When we used to hire and were well crewed up we have done the Warwickshire ring and half of the Ashby in a week. A nice cruise.

 

Richard

Just to illustrate the Warwickshire ring including the Lapworth, Farmers Bridge and Aston, Canalplan shows the following information (summarised):

 

Total distance is 104 miles, 5 flg and 121 locks. There are at least 4 moveable bridges of which 1 is usually left open; 14 small aqueducts or underbridges and 4 tunnels.

 

Made up of 78 miles, 2 furlongs of narrow canals; 26 miles, 3 furlongs of broad canals; 75 narrow locks; 46 broad locks.

 

This will take 59 hours, 44 minutes which is 6 days, 5 hours and 44 minutes at 9 hours per day.

 

For calculation purposes, this is taken as 7 days

 

Well worth having a look at the CanalPlan site to do your own calculations, although it looks like you don't have much time left before your trip!

 

This website address is as follows:

 

http://www2.mihalis.net/canal/cgi-bin/index.cgi

 

Whatever route you decide upon, have a great time!

 

We are looking forward to doing the Four Counties Ring in just under a month's time. Can't wait!

 

Best wishes

 

Stewey

[adam1uk]

Just to add to that, if you are new to this I would do the Knowle, Camp Hill and Garrison flights rather than Lapworth, Farmers Bridge and Aston. It's a lot less locks and time. When we used to hire and were well crewed up we have done the Warwickshire ring and half of the Ashby in a week. A nice cruise.

 

Richard

 

 

The trouble with the Knowle, Camp Hill, and Garrison route is that it misses out the centre of Birmingham, and Gas St and Brindley Place is surely the reason most people would head that way.

 

Just to illustrate the Warwickshire ring including the Lapworth, Farmers Bridge and Aston, Canalplan shows the following information (summarised):

 

Total distance is 104 miles, 5 flg and 121 locks. There are at least 4 moveable bridges of which 1 is usually left open; 14 small aqueducts or underbridges and 4 tunnels.

 

Made up of 78 miles, 2 furlongs of narrow canals; 26 miles, 3 furlongs of broad canals; 75 narrow locks; 46 broad locks.

 

This will take 59 hours, 44 minutes which is 6 days, 5 hours and 44 minutes at 9 hours per day.

 

For calculation purposes, this is taken as 7 days

 

Well worth having a look at the CanalPlan site to do your own calculations, although it looks like you don't have much time left before your trip!

 

It really doesn't take that long, though. Pearson's says it's 54 hours, and when we did it we included a diversion into Coventry. CanalPlan is excellent, but on days where there are lots of locks we always find that reality is faster than the estimate.

[classicstove]

As you can see from the postings, there are several ways to get an estimated time to travel along a canal but few that are actually based on how long it took

 

I have travelled the majority of the canal system and have logged the time I took along most of the major routes. These can be found on my website - look for which canal you are using, click on the link and a table shows the times between the towns/villages/locks etc

 

http://www.boatmail.co.uk/Worcs%20&%20Birmingham.htm

[adam1uk]

As you can see from the postings, there are several ways to get an estimated time to travel along a canal but few that are actually based on how long it took

 

I have travelled the majority of the canal system and have logged the time I took along most of the major routes. These can be found on my website - look for which canal you are using, click on the link and a table shows the times between the towns/villages/locks etc

 

http://www.boatmail.co.uk/Worcs%20&%20Birmingham.htm

 

I'm afriad I find your tables baffling. I'm assuming the figures are minutes, but that would mean that you're showing Worcester Bar to Edgbaston Tunnel as 1 mile, 0 locks, and taking 40 minutes, which seems unlikely. And have you ever met anyone who knows how long 1085 minutes is?