My partner and I have only been boating a couple of years and are still in that phase where we want to go as far as we can to explore the canals, writes Graham Stubbin.
Having just read that six canals had stoppages in two days leaves little confidence to go anywhere from the Trent & Mersey where we moor our narrowboat.
We have not managed to cruise any of the northern canals yet, as these have closures all the time, and with the Macclesfield Canal often closed and the Bridgewater permanently closed there is only the tidal Trent, and neither of us fancy that as newcomers to it all.
If we ever get there is could be a problems getting back, for I read Keith Gudgin’s reports of the three main canals all too often with stoppages. Both the Huddersfield and the Rochdale canals have stoppages at the moment. And don’t let’s forget the Leeds & Liverpool Canal that had no few stoppages last month.
So it looks like the Coventry Canal again and attempting to get down the Oxford Canal, though this latter one already has a stoppage caused by a damaged gate!
Wish us luck, Graham Stubbin.