Braunston to Llangollen.

[Boat&Bikes]

Any suggestions as to the best route for both scenery and interest. Pubs obviously are interesting. Will not be in a hurry so not really after the fastest route.

 

Cheers.

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, ianali said:

Any suggestions as to the best route for both scenery and interest. Pubs obviously are interesting. Will not be in a hurry so not really after the fastest route.

 

Cheers.

How long have you got? How long is your boat? For me if no hurry and a short boat it would be up to Nottingham up the tidal trent in at Keadby and along the A nd C then the L and L then throw a left and down to the welsh thing. Good trip plenty of different interests and scenic bits.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Assume you are going back to Braunston after, so take the most popular suggestion going one way and the next most the other. A huge number of ways it can be done. Do you prefer rural canals, or urban grot?

Jen

[Boat&Bikes]

5 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

How long have you got? How long is your boat? For me if no hurry and a short boat it would be up to Nottingham up the tidal trent in at Keadby and along the A nd C then the L and L then throw a left and down to the welsh thing. Good trip plenty of different interests and scenic bits.

58 foot and around 7 weeks return, need to be in London second week of July. Thanks for suggestions.

Ian.

5 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Assume you are going back to Braunston after, so take the most popular suggestion going one way and the next most the other. A huge number of ways it can be done. Do you prefer rural canals, or urban grot?

Jen

A mix is good.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

The most direct round trip might be N Oxford, Coventry, Brum & Fazeley, T&M, Middlewich Branch, Llangollen. Then Shropie, Wolverhampton, Brum, either Stratford and GU, or GU back to Braunston.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Jen-in-Wellies

[matty40s]

38 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The most direct round trip might be N Oxford, Coventry, Brum & Fazeley, T&M, Middlewich Branch, Llangollen. Then Shropie, Wolverhampton, Brum, either Stratford .....

If you are taking boat to London (why not??)...Stratford,  Avon, Severn, G&S Severn estuary, Avon (other one), K&A, Thames, Lunnon. You only live once.

[Horace42]

The easy rural route with minimum narrow locks, I would take is N.Oxford canal to Hawkesbury Jtn, Coventry canal via Fazeley Jtn to Fradley Jtn, Trent & Mersey canal to Gt.Haywood Jtn, Staffs & Worcs canal to Autherly Jtn, Shropshire Union canal to Hurleston Jtn, Llangollen canal to Llangollen. Back to Fradley, via Hurleston, Barbridge, middlewich, Heartbreak Hill and Harecastle tunnel, Gt.Haywood.

Or, by Grand Union, for an interesting adventurous industrial setting with lots of wide locks go through Birmingham, a grafitti decorated route through the city to the Coventry canal by the Birmingham & Fazeley canal, then to Fradley ..... 

[StephenA]

7 hours ago, Horace42 said:

The easy rural route with minimum narrow locks, I would take is N.Oxford canal to Hawkesbury Jtn, Coventry canal via Fazeley Jtn to Fradley Jtn, Trent & Mersey canal to Gt.Haywood Jtn, Staffs & Worcs canal to Autherly Jtn, Shropshire Union canal to Hurleston Jtn, Llangollen canal to Llangollen. Back to Fradley, via Hurleston, Barbridge, middlewich, Heartbreak Hill and Harecastle tunnel, Gt.Haywood.

And if you're doing that then do the Caldon on the way past......

Also a possible detour to Chester, or over to Anderton and the Lift and the Weaver.....

Edited April 19, 2017 by StephenA

[Horace42]

2 hours ago, StephenA said:

And if you're doing that then do the Caldon on the way past......

Also a possible detour to Chester, or over to Anderton and the Lift and the Weaver.....

Yes, the Caldon is very pretty considering it is passes through the heart of  the industrial Stoke potteries and well worth a visit (on the way back) - a grand opportunity not to be missed when in the area.

[churchward]

When we moved our boat from Near Rugby on the N. Oxford just a few hours north by boat from Braunston to the Llangollen we were tasked with much the same decision.  In the end we went for a straight forward route of N. Oxford, Coventry up to Fradley Junction and then up the T&M to Haywood Junction and turned onto the Staffs & Worcs through Tixal wide and up to Autherley Junction and turned North onto the Shropshire union then just kept going to Hurleston Junction and theLlangollen canal. It was good fun and a good route. We had not been along the Southern end of the Shropie before and found the scenery and narrows etc really nice and interesting. Audlem along the way was a great stop too. I am sure we would have enjoyed other routes too. Our second choice was to go up through Stoke and along to Middlewhich and the Middlewhich branch which would have been good too, probably about the same distance.

The funny thing was going  back to get the car from near Rugby. I took the train from Crewe and taxi either end but the whole journey including taxi times was about 2.5 hours to get to the car and similar to get back to the boat with the car.  By boat the journey took two weeks or so but we were taking it easy and enjoying ourselves but quite a contrast!

Edited April 19, 2017 by churchward

[Jen-in-Wellies]

I'e found that too. One weeks cruising is equivalent to about one hour by car, or train. The worst case was spending several weeks cruising from Sheffield to the summit of the Chesterfield canal, then cycing the twelve miles back to Sheffield in an hour!

Jenny

[Rob-M]

A bit like Great Haywood to Gnosall, 2 days boating or 25 minutes in the car. It's surprising how many people you speak to that don't consider how much longer it takes by boat. I was talking to some hirers as they set off from Worcester and they told me they were planning on meeting friends in the afternoon at Evesham. I pointed out they would take a very long day to do Worcester to Tewkesbury and on to Evesham and they said it wasn't long by car.

[Proper Charlie]

Crick to Hillmorton. 11 mins by car, an hour and a half on foot. But a long day by boat.

[Ray T]

18 hours ago, ianali said:

Any suggestions as to the best route for both scenery and interest. Pubs obviously are interesting. Will not be in a hurry so not really after the fastest route.

 

Cheers.

A45 to M6, M54 to A5, well you did say the fastest route. Ooops didn't read properly, Doh!

Edited April 19, 2017 by Ray T

[Boat&Bikes]

1 hour ago, Ray T said:

A45 to M6, M54 to A5, well you did say the fastest route. Ooops didn't read properly, Doh!

Sounds like Coventry humour.. made me smile.

Ian.

[john6767]

2 hours ago, Ray T said:

A45 to M6, M54 to A5, well you did say the fastest route. Ooops didn't read properly, Doh!

Don't follow Rays directions :-)

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, john6767 said:

Don't follow Rays directions :-)

Yes, the M6 is notoriously shallow 

[Psycloud]

22 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I'e found that too. One weeks cruising is equivalent to about one hour by car, or train. The worst case was spending several weeks cruising from Sheffield to the summit of the Chesterfield canal, then cycing the twelve miles back to Sheffield in an hour!

Jenny

And about 60x the fuel consumption!

[Jen-in-Wellies]

1 minute ago, Psycloud said:

And about 60x the fuel consumption!

Yes. MPG of narrowboats is really dreadful. Rediculously slow, ruinously expensive. Why do we do it?

Jen

[Horace42]

If you take the Coventry, T&M and S&W canal route to Llangollen, the bit from me at Polesworth to my son at Gailey (a door-to-door boat trip literally) we allow three days (8 hours cruising per day) - the car journey along the  A5 takes us 35 minutes (or 30 minutes at max speed limit if you pay through the nose and take the M6 toll). You can do it by boat in 2 days - 12 hours cruising per day - plus lock time in both cases.

[Boat&Bikes]

As we all know boating isn't about journey time, well, shouldn't be! Like riding motorbikes when I'm at the tiller I feel as though I'm in a movie, rather than watching one through the window of a car.

Ian.

[cuthound]

On 20/04/2017 at 09:31, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Yes. MPG of narrowboats is really dreadful. Rediculously slow, ruinously expensive. Why do we do it?

Jen

If you work it out in litres per hour it doesn't seem such poor value 

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Don't come north....its horrible up here...people are dour and humourless. No scenery to speak of. Rains constantly. Winds biting and sharp....and...oh yes....there are pie eating dragons that suck Uncle Joe's Mint Balls to breathe fire on you....

[john6767]

I love the different timescale that travelling by boat brings.  Home to marina is 45 mins, 40 mins if you push it on the M42.  By boat it is 3 days including 62 locks.

[WotEver]

Our first ever canal trip many years ago was Hartshill works to the Lime Kilns (Ashby). It takes around 15 minutes by car. It took us 4 hours by boat and it was at that point that we realised that it was about the journey, not the destination.