Sunday 18th April.
The weather has been unbelievable! Better than some summers we have had. We have just spent a very enjoyable weekend at Fradley Junction. We were going to stop at Alrewas for Saturday night and indeed we did stop there for lunchtime sustinence and shopping but we could only get a mooring right in the village, which was a bit claustrophobic so we decided to move on in the afternoon. Before this we took George to The Crown. As it is not far from the canal this did not prove to be a problem. It has a lovely large garden with a sunny aspect so it was very pleasant. We were surprised at the lack of people there were about, considering the amount of boats. Obviously not all piss artists, oops I mean real ale connoisseurs like ourselves!
After returning himself to the boat Ken and I went into the village again, this time for shopping. We just had to go to the fabulous Coate’s butchers again as their pork pies are to die for! We had one for our dinner last night and jolly nice it was too. Then we set off with the intention of mooring in the country for the weekend and going to Fradley on Monday. However, this was not possible as the proper moorings just after Bagnall Lock were full, probably with people thinking Alrewas would be full! When we tried to moor after Common Lock the canal was too shallow so we couldn’t get in to the side. We had to carry on to Fradley Junction. It was getting quite late (for us) about 3-30pm and we were worried Fradley would be chocker but a lady coming from Fradley told us there was hardly anyone moored here so we were lucky.
And here we have been since then. Today has been another cracking day weatherwise too. We took George round the Fradley Pool this morning, a nice 30 min walk and then to The Swan at lunchtime. He would have been ok but a man from a boat moored near ours wanted to share our table (it gets really busy there) and his dog, Tetley a Jack Russell/Cairn Terrier X, who George quite liked to start with, barked at George and of course George went berserk, so I had to take him back to the boat in disgrace! He wasn’t bothered though as we had got to the pub before it opened to get a seat and do some gongoozling and he was getting a bit hot anyway.
This afternoon we have lazed around on the bank doing crosswords and chatting to passers by. One Scottish lady from a few boats down regailed us with stories including one about her friend called Waveney!
Tomorrow we will be entering uncharted territory as we continue up the T and M.
