Hallmark: here we go: Minworth to Fazeley Junction

8 miles: 11 locks

Hallmark was on its way by 7:35am. It was a pleasant start to the day.
Leaving Minworth really shows that you have 'escaped' from the city and found the county again.with fields and flooded gravel pits lining the way.

First stop was Curdworth Tunnel.
This is two-way and short at 57 yards.
Easy............ no bumping the sides at all!

Although for five miles the M42 motorway runs parallel to the canal and the M6 Toll road crosses it and it's construction necessitating the repositioning of the top lock,
This 10 year old lock worked a treat.

Not so for the second in the flight.
I knew I was in for difficulty when the bottom gate would not fully open.
Even removing my fenders did not help.
Neither did two large men leaning on the gate or even a third.
We the tried rushing water some water from the sluices to lift the boat .
Moving Hallmark out of the lock wasgoing to need British Waterways.
They promised to be there is 20 minutes but took 45.
They said this was a regular problem with Lock 2 and set clearing sludge behind the gate.
This was soon done and Hallmark was free to tackle the remaining nine locks.
It was hot work as the afternoon sun was fierce.

At Curdworth Bottom Lock there are four canal cottages.
Towards Fazeley you see the first open farm land since the Stratford upon Avon Canal.

As you get near to Fazeley the scenery changes again.
There gravel pits all around.
Gravel has been extracted from the valley of the River Tame since the 1930s.
First by dredger and then by dragline.
Some say the landscape has been irrevocably scarred by such activities.
Luckily the imaginative creation of the Kingsbury Water Park out of the abandoned gravel workings.

I made a diesel and water stop at Fazeley Mill Maina.
It is a very tight turn in but the pump is very accessible and I decide to back out into the canal rather that turn round in the marina.