Not everybody likes to travel at the same pace on the canals, some prefer to spend just a few hours a day on the move and allow plenty of time to go sightseeing or go to the pub. Others, like us, prefer to spend most of the day on the move but have a reasonably long evening to relax. We like to get on the move around 7.30am each day, which may be horrifying to some, but this is when the canal is at its best - early morning mist, wildlife stirring, and few other boats on the move. Get a few locks done in the first couple of hours and you are set for an early evening.

The routes shown here are generally based on long days at 3.25mph and allow 12 minutes for the locks, which with a crew of two (plus skipper) we have found to be remarkably accurate. Although stages are timed, there is no panic during the day to stick with the times shown but it does give you a good idea of when you will be mooring for the night and you can extend or shorten lunch hours or water stops to make sure that you arrive at your evening mooring when you want. Although on many days time of arrival does not matter, if you are on a fixed route such as a ring and you need to be back at base by a certain day there is nothing worse than arriving at your mooring as it is getting dark and not having an evening to enjoy. Many of the routes here have been completed and you can see from our times how we fared.

If you want to use any of these routes you are welcome to do so, and you can print the route out with the button provided. This will give you a route sheet, without our times, printed as one day to a page.

The basic routes were worked out with Syd Arkless's Canal Planner but are then much tweaked with a spreadsheet to get the layout and timings shown.

At the moment Slipstream is based at Fradley Junction so the routes shown start and finish there.