As the canal wanders directionally aimless around the contours via Ash, Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, Dogmersfield and so on, one can’t help remember the (probably apocryphal) story of the hitch-hiker on the old Winchester by-pass holding a sign that said “Anywhere but Basingstoke”.  And with (a)  the Greywell tunnel blocked (b) both ends of the tunnel now two of the most important bat SSSIs in Europe and (c) the M3, no amount of restoration will enable the Basingstoke Canal to reach Basingstoke.

The canal does manage to cross the Blackwater Valley Road, though. It’s quite odd cruising over a major dual-carriageway on an aqueduct that one has driven under far too often over the years.

Immediately after is a huge fishing area that we’d never come across before, and someone in Aldershot made a nice posh bridge once upon a time. It’s certainly an odd area!