Tuesday 19th July

We passed a very strange craft this morning – we weren’t too sure which was the front and which was the back! There were a number of locks today but all spread out which made life a bit easier. North of Leamington Spa there is a Tesco with mooring outside, so we did our shopping and managed to take the trolley all the way back to the boat. Richard was a good boy and took the trolley back to Tesco and didn’t throw it into the canal!! Our destination today was Warwick and the Saltisford Arm which is all that remains of the Warwick terminus of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. The part of canal from Napton to Warwick used to be called the Warwick and Napton Canal but in January 1929 the present Grand Union Canal came into being and was formed of an amalgamation of eleven different canals and now runs from Birmingham to London and there is an offshoot at Norton Junction which takes you up through Leicester and up to the River Trent. The Saltisford Arm was restored from dereliction between 1982 and 1988 by the Saltisford Canal trust and is now home to seven families living aboard. They have a laundrette on site and, even though I have a washing machine on board, I availed myself of their facilities to wash and DRY the towels :-)