Start of another year.

I hope there aren’t too many thick heads around this morning. This is our third New Year on the boat, and I don’t think it’ll be our last.

We had a quiet evening, up until 11:55 when someone over near Burton set off a pretty noisy firework display. We were abed by this time, and didn’t even bother to get up to have a look.

This morning we were under way at 11:00, and had a steady 3 hour cruise to Alrewas.

There were a lot of people about walking the towpath, all saying hello and wishing us a Happy New Year.
Someone even left the same message in the frost on the balance beam of Tatenhill Lock.
There were also quite a few boats about again, we counted 13 today. Once again, a fair proportion of them were hire boats.
The Shakespeare Line boats we saw are relocating from Barton Turns to Mercia Marina.

With this many boats about, there was a good chance that we’d have the locks in our favour as we reached them. In fact, we only had to open the gates on the last one, Alrewas Lock. The rest were just being vacated as we arrived.

Good timing at Barton Lock
The new lock landing at Alrewas Lock
Compared to it's state last August
We moored in Alrewas around 14:00. I’ll pop up to the Co-op in the morning for bread and milk before we set off for Fradley.

Moored in Alrewas.
It’s been another grey old day, but a bit clearer than yesterday, and a bit milder. The frost on the roof of the boat that’s been there since Tuesday had melted by just after lunch.

Locks 4, miles 5½