Friday, August 29, 2008

Boats, boats and more boats. But full cupboards.

Unfortunately the Tesco man didn’t arrive as early as hoped, and it was past 11:00 by the time the groceries were all away. The queue of boats starting at the top of the flight had reached us by this time, so we hung on, waiting for a gap.

Not in our fridge it don’t!

Still, the cupboards are nicely full again.

We got off in a bit of a lull at around 12:30, but still had 1 or 2 boats in front of us at every lock. Most of the boats seem to be going in the same direction as us today, so we didn’t often get the benefit of empty locks.

We filled with water at Alrewas, just above Alrewas Lock that drops the canal down to the short river section.

Alrewas water point

The landing at the lower side of the lock has been sliding into the river for a couple of years now. It looks like BW are making preparations to do some repairs this winter.

Which reminds me… I must have a look at the Winter Stoppage List for this year that I downloaded the other day.
I like the river section, the water smells somehow cleaner and fresher, and you can see the bottom 4 feet down.

The weir is getting a bit overgrown, though. A good flood will soon sort that out.

Back onto the canal and we went past Barton Turns Marina where a lot of the hire boats will be returning to tomorrow, and pushed on to Branston. There’re good moorings here, either side of bridge 34, but no vacancies tonight. We got in a bit further on, on rough banking. It’ll do for tonight.

The good weather continues. Dry but overcast and quite muggy today. Still, it’s better than rain. Now, when do you think the first hosepipe bans will be introduced?

Locks 8, miles 7

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