Sunday 22nd September
Yesterday morning we came out of the marina and moored in the village (stir crazy already!) opposite the permanent moorings. We went to the Coop to take advantage of their beer offers (especially as we were now moored closer so we didn’t have so far to carry it), then we went to Burton on the bus and did the usual. Who should be in the Wetherspoon’s – Mick and Cathy (surely not)! They were now moored at Alrewas and came in to Burton to get Cathy’s watch fixed. I have no doubt we will bump into them again soon.
Today has been a really lovely Summery day and a good one for cruising. We have made the most of it by travelling 11 miles and 6 locks from Willington to Alrewas (with a brief flirtation with a mooring at Branston which was taken by someone else just before we got there anyway) and are moored just above the lock.
We made good time as at every lock, except Barton Turns, a boat was coming out as we got there so we could go straight in! At Barton Turns Lock we caught up with Mike (nb Bluenote) who was waiting for a Shakespeare boat to come down. After he went up the lock he moored up to go for lunch at the Barton Turns Inn. We then had to wait for nb Life After Work to come down before we could go up. They are a nice couple (don’t know their names) who used to moor at Mercia but have now moved to Barton Marina, we have met them twice this year on our travels.
After Barton Turns it was back to the plain sailing to Alrewas and we arrived about 1-45 pm to find a very convenient mooring just above Alrewas Lock. A quick visit to the Coop was swiftly followed by a couple of Jenning’s Cumberlands in the George and Dragon. It was still pretty busy in there considering lunch time was over. We decided to leave before the football kicked off at 4 pm (they were showing it in the back room) otherwise we would have once more exceeded the stated dose! On our way back from the pub we met Mike again, going to the pub again!
We’re not sure where we’ll end up tomorrow!
