What’s been happening since I left you? Well, Thursday we set off from just outside Stenson about 8-30am, early for us these days as we just can’t seem to get up in the mornings! We had the HUGE lock to do practically as soon as we left. Fortunately we locked up with another boat. This halves the muscle work and makes it easier to control the boat in the lock. After this the locks became TINY in comparison and only need one hand for winding paddles and opening gates, bliss.
We made a pub stop (for George) at The Mill House at Stretton. We had to hide him under the table as only Guide dogs were allowed, even where we were, outside! When we got to Horninglow Basin, for a water/elsan stop, Ken had to do a very impressive reversing manouvre to get in. After that we went down to Shobnall Fields to moor up for the shops. Now, you know when you look at a map and things don’t look very far away? Believe me at Burton the shops are a very long way from Shobnall Fields, despite what the map looks like! However, as our fat dog seems to have given up walking we needed the exercise so all was not lost! We also got some useful info from the man in the fishing tackle shop regarding Alrewas. As it was fairly late (nearly G&T time) when we got back to the boat we decided to stay at Shobnall Fields for the night. Had we have known how nice the moorings were at Branston Waterpark we may have ventured further but never mind. We are storing that info for a future trip. It’s Sods Law that when the pubs are shut or you aren’t looking for one (yes, sometimes we aren’t looking for one!) you see all the best ones and the same with mooring spots.
Today (Friday) we had intended to get to Fradley Junction, which is where we turn on to the Coventry Canal, but as usual we are lagging behind a bit! Firstly we were going to go to Morrisons at Branston but all the convenient moorings were still full from the night before, boaters don’t seem to get about very early! So we carried on. Then we missed the rubbish collection point as it has been moved from Tatenhall Lock to a canalside cafe just before Barton Turn and we didn’t see it until we were sailing past! We did see a very convenient water point at Barton Turn so we decided to fill up. As luck would have it there was a nice pub nearby, dog friendly, roaring fire, great! It didn’t open until 12pm but that was ok, we would take fat dog for a toddle up the towpath for 20 mins or so……..Errr no we wouldn’t because he spotted the pub and refused to go past it! We decided to sit in the canalside garden, near the lock and do a bit of gongoozling. Gongoozling is the pastime of watching boaters making twats of themselves doing locks! That was fun and filled the time in nicely until the pub opened. However, horrors …….. as we were about to enter the pub we discovered they had 3 dogs of their own in the bar! So we had to go back to the garden and the gongoozling.
As it was a little chilly we didn’t stay long at the pub and made our way through Barton and Wychnor, accompanied most of the way by the A38, to Alrewas where we are now. We were lucky to get a mooring here as it is a very popular spot. The shops are altogether more accessible than the ones in Burton, thank God, so we stocked up a bit.
I decided to light the fire for the first time tonight. I have done very well to get it going I think, as I had no boy scouts to rub together and only a meagre amount of kindling to get it started! It is glowing away nicely now. In the absence of a companion set I have had to improvise, using the kitchen tongs to put the coal on with. This was ok until I needed to dish up the bacon on the all day breakfast! It had a rather crunchy texture and a chargrilled flavour! Must get coal tongs, oh and a poker to replace the large screwdriver I am using at the moment!
Ken is currently on the trail of the huge Zander that are supposed to inhabit these parts according to several passers by……… hmmmm.
We’ll be leaving the T and M tomorrow and venturing forth on to the Coventry Canal in the next part of the ring.
Cheers, B.
