Sunday 30th and Monday 31st October
Sunday we helped Mick and Cathy negotiate Stenson Lock for the first time and went up to Swarkestone to turn round. As it happens we shouldn’t have turned round upstream of Swarkestone Lock but we didn’t see the notice until after we had, by which time it was too late!
We made our way back to The Ragley Boat Stop for lunchtime where we took George and sat in the garden in glorious sunshine. There are good moorings at the bottom of the pub garden with electric hookup if you want it. Unfortunately being moored there attracted a good deal of attention from mainly children who had been having lunch at the pub and then had been brought down by their parents to look at the canal. One little girl actually cupped her hands and pressed her face to the glass on the window!
Later we went back to the pub for dinner, Ken and I had sirloin steaks which were excellent. After dinner we all sat outside until 11pm, with no coats it was so mild!
Monday morning we sat outside and had breakfast in the sun, something we have only been able to do a few times all Summer! Then we made our way back to the marina and got settled in for the Winter. It is nice to travel but equally it is nice to be in one place for a while too. It is also nice to be on the electric hookup and run the kettle, iron, washing machine, computer, tv, immersion heater etc when you like and not when you have the engine and generator running and it’s nice to have more lights on in the evenings! Also it’s good to be able to use the freezer, mmm – yorkshire puddings and frozen peas and chips!
We took George down to the village and he did better than we thought he would, taking only 35 minutes to get to the Dragon where he then spent the next hour asleep, bless! Ken decided to take him home on the bus and was charged a half price fare of 60p for him. As I don’t have a bus pass I had to walk and as Ken was looking after George I also had to carry 2 bags of shopping!
