Thursday 29th August
We had a four hour trip today, travelling 7 miles and 7 locks from Armitage to Alrewas, but that did include a 1 hour hiatus in Fradley! We heard Mick and Cathy go past at some ungodly hour like 6 am and they did the trip without encountering any hold ups. We didn’t leave until 7-45 am, we had about an hour and a half’s travelling until the first lock of the day so I did the ironing, some washing and made the bacon rolls.
The first 2 locks (Wood End and Shadehouse) were fine because there was a boat coming out of each when we arrived so we went straight in. When we descended Middle Lock we could see the usual melee which is the junction. Someone coming up said there were about 4 boats waiting for Junction Lock. We joined the queue just as one of them went in the lock and it looked like we were third. However there were also 2 boats waiting on the Coventry Canal as well.
As it looked like there would be a long wait I went off with the loo and the rubbish. By the time I came back we were still third because one of the boats from the Coventry had gone down the lock. Unowatsizname pulled up behind us and we had a chat. Then we went to the lock to help a couple of chaps, one with an artificial leg who seemed to be doing all the running around. There was a couple there who had been on the lock ever since we got there and I wondered which boat they were with. It transpired they had actually got there before us but they were on the Coventry and had not been able to join the queue because it was so busy on the T and M.
I asked if they wanted to go next but they said they would go after Unowatsizname so we carried on. After this the backlog dispersed and we continued our journey down the further 2 locks unhindered. At Common Lock there was a Shakespeare hire boat coming up and when the crew opened the ground paddles the boat shot forward crashing into the top gate and nearly catapulting Grandad out of the well deck into the lock!
We arrived at Alrewas at 11-45 am and moored upstream of Bagnall Lock. We don’t like mooring in the village at the bottom of someone’s garden and we had heard from several people that all the moorings beyond the water point near Alrewas Lock were full so stopping here was a good idea. It is near a road bridge but I’m sure that won’t bother us! There are plenty of moorings here and only 2 other boats. One of which is Ami Bovard with the Pakefield Pirate on board.
We went in to the village to the Coop (paper, green scourers and yoghurt) and Coates Butchers (runner beans and a huge pork pie) and then went in The George And Dragon to wait for Mick and Cathy who, having arrived so much earlier, had gone off to Burton on the bus. After the pub we walked round to the house where they sell jam and things on the wall and got plum jam, pickled beetroot and cherry tomatoes. We returned to the boat via the tow path.
Tomorrow we are only going to Branston so I can have a lie in, hoorah!
