We have emerged from the communication black spot that is Norbury Wharf where we spent Sat and Sun. While we were there I had virtually no phone signal and an internet connection that made a tortoise look like Lewis Hamilton on Speed!
Saturday morning Ken left without me (I was still in the bathroom) in order to get to the diesel point as soon as they opened at 8 am. I emerged a little while later and went to the shop for a paper before we left. We then travelled 7.5 miles and 0 locks from Wheaton Aston to Norbury Wharf.
We stopped on a very muddy waterpoint at Gnosall to fill up with water. While I was doing this Ken went off to see if there was a cashpoint in the village. Unfortunately there wasn’t. He was going to put the diesel on the credit card but they don’t take credit cards so he had to pay cash which took all his folding and some change. Fortunately we had not got round to putting our latest change collection in the bank so we had over £100 in £1 and £2 coins in the boat which we have been spending until we get to Market Drayton tomorrow.
After we left Gnosall we passed Barry and Barbara coming the other way. They had been up to Norbury to wait for the school holidays to finish before tackling the Wolverhampton 21! They knew we were headed towards them (Barbara reads this sometimes) but with no phone signal at Norbury were unable to phone and let us know they were there. Anyway, we may catch up with them again later on in the year.
Soon after this we arrived at Norbury and moored right on the end of the moorings just after the aqueduct. We stayed there for a couple of nights venturing out between the hail storms and showers to go to The Junction Inn and the chandlery at the wharf.
We have recently been experiencing some trouble with our inverter (again) so decided to get it checked out at the wharf before we left today. The new one has been working perfectly well since we had it fitted in Gloucester but for some reason it has started just switching itself off. This morning after visiting the sanitary station we pulled over to the wharf and breasted up to the trip boat. The chap who came to look at our inverter couldn’t tell us what was wrong with it and as it is still under warranty we have decided to take it back to Midland Swindlers when we pass one.
While we were at it we had the new alternator checked and it is working perfectly so that’s a relief but a couple of our batteries were hot so we got a set of new ones fitted. They had an offer on in the chandlery and having 4 new batteries fitted and the old ones taken away cost us £100 less than when we had the last ones fitted in 2011!
After all this titting about it was getting on for 11 am and we set off for Goldstone Wharf. There are rows and rows of in line moorings along this stretch of the canal and the going was pretty slow. As a result of this it was after 1 pm when we moored up here and hot footed it into the Wharf Tavern! It has been a lovely day and we sat outside the pub in the sun, lovely.
This evening Ken is fishing but thus far only seems to be catching tiddlers! Tomorrow we are going to Market Drayton.
