Left at 09:10
arrived at 17:10.
Up to a cool cloudy day,
destination Fradley Junction and then
turn on to the Coventry Canal and on to venture into new territory for us. I did my morning text and we were off for 9
10 . we passed a beautiful old looking
boat The Canny Fox it was moored next to the pub and painted in the traditional
way, with an old Lister engine and lovely Buckby cans on the back with their
mop propped through the handles, all the brasses were very shiny and even the
skipper was very shiny. Met the queue, a
large 70ft boat in front of us on the landing stage and 3 old guys in a small
NB, who were having a great deal of difficulty getting in the lock? Three attempts later and with a lot of black
smoke billowing out of the back of the boat, they were in!!!! The man and lady in the big barge were amazed
at how inept they were. The couple on Dingo Haulage Barge lived on their boat
and were in the process of doing some renovations, painting etc. We christened the old guys the Mottley Crew
and hoped that we may be able to pass avoid them on the way up. I helped Mrs Dingo put their boat in and we
had a nice chat (there is a beautiful cottage next to the lock with an
extensive garden and a Vintage Barge moored at the top of the lock- cool or
what) Said goodbye to Dingo Haulage, they were planning to stop for a while on
the way up to do a bit of painting in the sunshine. We came into the lock and
there were now two boats behind us waiting to come up, lady from the 1st
boat came and helped us through and by this time a queue was forming at the
other side, let a hire boat in to come down, it was going to be a long
day. The sun had come out by now so I
put a shirt on and my sunhat, I had had chat with last lady about the weather
and she was pleased I was like her and not a fan of the sun !!!! We went through a bridge hole and it was so
narrow we scraped the boat, Derek has lifted the fenders because it is like
that on the narrow locks down here. Went
through the next lock ok, on the narrow locks there are two gates in and one
gate out, so Derek came and opened one of the gates at the front and led the
boat in with the rope. We passed Dingo
Haulage outside Barton Marina and let a different NB out of the Marina in front
of us, everyone is coming out no the sun has brought them out to play. We had elevenses before the next lock. Its always amusing sailing up this stretch,
the A38 is on the left hand side, the road is very busy, fast and noisy and it
slightly messes with your mind. It seems
that we are straddled between two eras, us going at 3 m.p.h if were lucky. !!! At the next bridge the silver hikers went by,
group of 20 or more men, women and dogs, bet they’re heading for the pub. Wynchnor lock, it was very busy, helped few
narrowboats up and down. One in lock was very green, cream and shiny, it was
only 2 weeks old and skipper said he had lost 3 slim jim fenders so far, he
lost the 4th on leaving the lock, I told him it was best to lift
them up, he shrugged his shoulders and said he supposed scratches were inevitable,
they certainly are.! On our way to Alrewas, its one of my favourite places on the water,
it has lots of canal side cottages, some thatched and lots with beautiful
gardens. The sun was shining so it
showed the water, cottages etc at their best.
There are now lots of Bright blue dragonflies and they sparkle in the
sunshine. (They may be damselflies but need to look that up) We stopped at the water point for lunch, it
was getting very warm by now, nearly 30 in the cratch with the flaps open. We did Common lock and we were now well on
our way to Fradley, three more and then turn left to the Coventry Canal. We had finished Fradley by 3 15, very hot,
very tired hopefully thats the last for today, went to open the little swing
bridge on to the Coventry it was a doddle thank heaven. Going along the
Coventry, heading for a place called Whittington for some provisions. Its very
quiet down this way, Derek let a NB called Willow pass us as we are dragging
along the bottom because of our large prop. ??? Its very shallow, lots and lots of yellow
flag Irises also saw a Rhododendron (purple) still with lots of flowers
on. The further we travel through this
canal the more it looks like a swamp, the warm sticky weather has brought out
the flies, there are swirling swarms of them round the top of the water.
Finally stopped at Whittington at 5 30. Derek got a bit of shopping, we have
tele and are having a fry up for tea, Yippee.
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