Scout Easter Canal Trip

The annual Easter canal trip is always a favourite with the Scouts and from the feedback we have already received, this year was no exception.

The Scouts travelled by narrowboat along the inland waterways of the Midlands whilst navigating the Warwickshire ring, manning a total of 120 locks, covering a distance of 104 miles at an average speed of 3mph.

We picked up our boat Centenary on the Oxford Canal in Rugby on Saturday 1st April with Group 1. We set sail towards Coventry with some of the crew having little to no experience of the canal boats, getting used to their new surroundings they quickly realised why it was called a narrowboat! Days were filled with locks and enjoying the slow meander through the countryside, evenings saw the Scouts compete in various card and board games before climbing into their sleeping bags for a good night’s sleep.

The Scouts took turns to drive the narrowboat as we made our way towards Solihull and then onto Lapworth, our swap over point with Group 2. With freshly charged reinforcements now onboard we set sail towards the Hatton flight, a total of 21 locks in one long line confronted us, but with great teamwork from all of the crew we did our final lock in just over two hours, a great achievement by all. 

With the sun on our backs, we made good progress which enabled us to deviate slightly from our planned route so the Scouts could experience the Braunston Tunnel. This was opened in 1796 and is an impressive 1867 metres long. The Scouts took the opportunity as we went through the tunnel to sing their favourite campfire songs whilst enjoying the acoustics it provided, before turning around and heading back through the tunnel towards the boat yard.

With the great efforts of the crew, we managed to clean and decamp the boat by 10:30 the next day so we were able to get back to Cheam, hot on the heels of the Easter bunny.