John G

The Warwickshire Ring can be quite deceptive for timings. Most hire companies on the ring are based between Rugby and Warwick, and most seem to go clockwise, so most of the locks are in the first half of the week. You make slow progress in the early days so push on and cruise longer. You keep the same pace and length of day in the later days with fewer locks, but soon work out that you could have take your time more than you had thought.

Thanks for all the advice, sounds like it should all be fine. They have a couple of vacant spots at the Stourbridge basin the night I'm aiming to be there, but none long enough for my boat so looks like I'll be outside the compound. I know Stourbridge as a town fairly well, but usually I'm on the train when I visit there: plenty of decent pubs there.

Hi all, I'm planning a leisurely jaunt down the length of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal with a slight detour via the Stourbridge town arm. It will be my first time on these waterways, so I'm after some advice. Between overnight stops in Stourbridge and Stourport we have time for one other overnight stop. Initially I'd planned to stop at Kinver and see the National Trust rock houses there, but the website says they'll be closed that day. I'll probably now save Kinver for another time, so am looking at another overnight stop. I've narrowed it down to 3 places that all seem to be near decent pubs: Caunsall, Cookley or Wolverley. I'd like advice on which of the three has the best pub, for food and ale, and which the best moorings. At Stourbridge I have asked the Trust if there is any space in the basin for an overnight mooring, and they've said they will get back to me. If we can't get in there, what are the moorings like outside the basin? Safe to leave the boat for a few hours? At Stourport how early are we realistically going to have to get there to get a decent mooring? I understand there are only two visitor moorings in the basin, so it would be pretty wishful thinking to expect one of those to be free at any time of day. Do the town visitor moorings tend to fill up fast? If we were to spend a few hours in Kidderminster and arrive in Stourport early evening how far out of Stourport would we likely have to moor? Any advice would be appreciated.

Exactly. I'd expect some to be 'churn' of those accidentally letting their licence lapse, etc, and some to be a 'hardcore' who have no intention of getting a licence. Getting an idea of duration and whether the owners of each boat are known to the crt would give a much better idea of what the problems are.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/whats-on-news/airbnb-coventry-11-quirkiest-places-11321391 Featured in the local rag...

Google "cluster flies". They may well be your culprit, and dealing with them is different to the common house fly. Plenty out there on the internet about them.

You may well be right, it's been about 3 years since I last went there.

Pubs of note between Rugby and Ashby (I'm sure others will add to this): The Boat and The Barley Mow (both next to each other) in Newbold just outside of Rugby before the tunnel. The Greyhound, Sutton Stop. Legendary canalside pub at the junction of the Oxford and Coventry canals. The Lime Kilns just east of the A5 on the Ashby. The Rising Sun in Shackerstone. A short walk from the canal in a pretty village.

Last week of August you should just miss the most expensive prices, but it's still going to be expensive I'm afraid. You could gamble on the availability of a late deal (websites like late link and websites of individual hire firms offer these) and not book now, but given the distance you are travelling to get here and your specific desire to do a particular canal it might not be advisable. If you have more flexibility over which week you go within your holiday this may be something worth looking at though. Generally I try to hire based on the number of fixed berths, rather than converting the dinette to a bed, dealing with fold-outs etc each night, but plenty do enjoy holidays while putting up with this slight hassle. It's down to a judgement you must make of price vs convenience. Longer boats are just as easy to steer, many say easier. It sounds like you should have an able crew. Two adults capable of steering and two enthusiastic assistants to help out at the locks. I can't speak for your route as I've not previously done it but if the calculations (for example on the canal planner website http://canalplan.eu) estimate 6-7 hours cruising per day you should be fine in late August even if you take a bit longer, as daylight hours are still quite long.

On a 'stretching the definition of on-topic' note, Terence Conoley, who spluttered the immortal line A gin and orange, a lemon squash, and scotch and water please, passed away at the weekend aged 96.

One you may want to try is Hillmorton Wharf, which is just off the main road from Crick to Rugby, on the very edge of the town and has regular bus services into Rugby where you could get a train. http://www.hillmortonwharf.com/mooring.htmif you're willing to wait a few years for a train there are plans for a Rugby Parkway station a few minutes walk from Hillmorton Wharf.

It depends what you mean by 'reasonable access' to a railway station. Brinklow and Lime Farm would probably be around £20 in a taxi to Rugby station, or a walk of around 30 minutes to a bus service that would take you there. Saltisford Arm is a lot more straightforward to access Warwick Parkway station, around a 5 minute walk up the towpath.

Bostin'! Only in the Black Country can Wharf be rhymed with Half.

"It costs us about £1 million each year to clear the dumped rubbish" It would be interesting to know if that is net of any income the CRT might get from more valuable waste such as scrap metal, still usable windlasses, etc. Or do they have local or national contracts whereby they just fill skips and pay for disposal?

I've hired from I think 5 different companies, only one of which provided waterproofs on the boat as standard. Your hire company may well have these at their base that can be requested. Early September is not usually a particularly rainy time of year, and in recent years is only realy distinct from August by slightly shorter daylight hours. I hope I'm not cursing your luck by saying this but you're unlikely to get a complete washout, and can probably tweak your itinerary to avoid the worst of any weather.