Saturday 30th June
Today we made rather slow progress from Hopwas to Fradley Junction for some reason. We had to winkle round a dislodged BW barge with a large tree branch on board at one point. When we got to the junction it was chaos. We wanted to get water and were lucky someone was just vacating one of the taps on the Coventry section so we got straight on it before descending the lock.
Once we had got the water it took a further 30 minutes to get off the Coventry and down Junction lock. There were boats every where it seemed and to start with we could only get through the swing bridge and wait breasted up to a boat on the 24 hour moorings before moving to the lock approach outside the pub.
By the time we had got down the lock, with the assistance of a volunteer lock keeper which was nice, it was getting on a bit, so as there was a nice mooring available and I really couldn’t be bothered to carry on anyway, we stopped.
George had a toddle to the pub, we didn’t make him go round the Fradley Pool first this time, bless. We sat outside until it rained then we went in. We saw Brian (from the marina) in there and had a good catch up.
Sunday 1st July
We haven’t come very far today, only 2 miles and 4 locks in fact, from Fradley to Alrewas. We were originally going to stop here, go to the Coop (food and money supplies were getting critical) and then move on but as we found a nice mooring near Alrewas lock we decided to stay.
It is the Open Garden weekend here and by this afternoon there were quite a few people about in the village, including a rather flamboyant group of Morris Dancers! They had some really imaginative outfits and fabulous feathery hats! We also met a couple of miniature Dobermans called Ronnie and Reggie with their Staffie mate Spot! Good job we didn’t have old grumpy guts with us today.
The weather took a turn for the worse this afternoon and it became showery and pretty chilly so we lit the fire. As soon as the fire took hold however, the sun proceeded to come out so now we’re too hot and have got the hatches and doors open! Ho hum.
Not sure how far we are going tomorrow.
