Friday 23rd August
Today we have travelled 11 miles and just 2 locks from Wheaton Aston to Coven and are moored just past The Fox and Anchor. The journey took about 4 hours. There was a bit of a hiatus at Brewood because of the boat shuffling they were doing at the hire base and a large amount of boats, still unhired, were breasted up along quite a long stretch. The canal is quite wide there so there were also boats moored on the opposite bank. The going was slow, especially when meeting something coming the other way.
After the hire base there is a line of permit holder moorings then the visitor moorings to pass slowly so it took some time to get through. The rest of the trip was unhindered, we went straight in the stop lock at Autherley when another boat came out and we arrived at Coven about 1-00 pm.
We walked up to the village to get a few bits at the Coop, including the yellow split peas for Ken’s soup, then fell in the pub on the way back. We met a nice couple there, with their retriever Max, who are out from Calf Heath Marina for the weekend. They had only been travelling for an hour and a half when they moored up, can’t fault them! We had a couple of pints and a bit of a laugh.
Tomorrow we are going to Penkridge, unless the threatened thunder storms engulf us. Mick and Cathy have already got to Great Haywood, in 2 days from Willington, they must be mad!
