Sunny and I are raising funds for the Canal and River Trust by walking 26.2 miles along the towpath in July. Please sponsor us. We want to raise funds because we want to help preserve, conserve and improve England's wonderful canal network.  One lock gate costs £25,000 and there are over 1500 locks on the canals.  Then there is the towpath maintenance, dredging, reed-cutting, provision of water and hygiene facilities and so on and so on. The Canal and River Trust do a fine job.  Their volunteers are magnificent, and I believe the canals are valuable now and will be an inordinately useful transport network in the future.