Monday 10th September
I was up and at-em at 7:30 this morning and had completed my FIRST EVER solo lock passage (Tattenhill) by 7:50. I then honed my process during passage of the next two locks before Brenda surfaced as we passed through the river Trent section before Alrewas.
As we passed through we noticed Allan aboard Pengallanty moored up and shouted hello as he is a fellow Cutweb member. Further on there is a wonderful Olympic themed mural under the bridge by Bagnall lock. It even shows the Queen parachuting into the opening ceremony. We continued on the Fradley services where I filled Jannock’s water tank whilst Brenda went to use the shower. Having inspected the facility she decided to use the one on the boat as the BW/CaRT item was too much hassle to use due to very poor design.
At the junction Brenda completed a very tricky manoeuvre of exiting Junction lock and turning left onto the Coventry canal whilst one northbound boat hovered outside the Swan public house whilst another was coming out of the junction. Once through the swing bridge we continued on to the Plough at Huddlesford where we stopped for lunch. The beer was fine but the food was reasonable typical pub grub.
As we rounded the bend at the top of Hopwas woods we met nb “Hoo Mill”, another Cutweb member according to the sticker in the window which amused Brenda and I a great deal. We know Hopwas woods as “hooty wol woods” (See www.jannock.org.uk – 30th May 2004) and so to meet Hoo Mill was amusing.
On through Fazely to Glascote where we found both locks set against us. I was surprised to see a barge shell in Hudson’s yard. I wonder if it has false rivets?
Passing on through Amington we found a small child in a back garden trying to retrieve his football from the canal so it was ‘Jannock to the rescue’ yet again. Having recovered the ball and returned it to it’s owner we then had to encourage him to say Thankyou. We moored for the night opposite the golf course just before Alvecote marina.
Storecupboard challenge #8 – UHT milk with a best before date of 2011 which was totally correct, the fat had started to separate out even though it still tasted fine – score 6/10
Graham
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