OK, we're not going to make it to Saltisford Canal Centre in Warwick for Elizabeth's jury duty after all. She refuses to commute by car, so the only option is to be close to Banbury station, meaning to us, Cropredy, or being close to Leamington Spa, if we think of being to the east of Warwick. We can easily get to Cropredy for the first week of the duty, but we could not make to Leamington, as that is west of the closed locks. And though we could make it to Cropredy, we could never make it from Cropredy to Warwick in the mid weekend between the two weeks jury duty.
So we have decided to approach Warwick from the west... We'll go north on the Oxford Canal, join the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction, travel west on the Coventry then join the Birmingham and Fazely Canal just north of Birmingham at Fazeley Junction. Then we'll travel south down the east side of Brum, through the centre, then go east onto the western end of the Grand Union, continue east through Solihul and end up in Hatton. Hey presto, five minute train journey from the west to Warwick. We have done most of this route before, clockwise round the Warwickshire Ring. (See October 2008). But we'll use a faster route from Birmingham when we take the Grand Union as compared to what we did before by travelling the northern end of the Stratford on Avon Canal. It will take us 6 days or so for the journey, and we're looking forward to it!
