The journey starts in Bagnall Lock, Alrewas, on the Trent & Mersey Canal, and travels through the village of Alrewas to Alrewas Lock. Once through the lock the River Trent can be seen flowing in from the left and leaving on the right over a weir protected by a large boom. The black and white bridges on the left carry the towpath over the river and surrounding water meadows.

At Wychnor Lock the A38 joins the canal on the right hand side. The large brick building, which actually stands against the south bound carriage way of the A38, was once an old coaching inn, the "Flitch of Bacon", the towpath crosses bridge 43 to run on the right of the canal. Glimpses of the large road signs can be seen on this section of canal along with traffic speeding by.

The entrance to the large Barton Turns Marina is reached on the left closely followed by Barton Lock with the "Barton Turns" public house on the right. The building to the left below the lock was built about the same time as the canal and was at one time "The Navigation Coffee House".

The A38 leaves the canal just before bridge 36. This very narrow bridge is also where the towpath briefly rejoins the left hand side of the canal. There is a large gravel works over the towpath hedge, the area around here
once being a hive of activity with gravel pits both sides of the canal. Most of these pits are now filled with water and used as nature reserves, the largest being Branston Water Park.