Delivery day.

We had a slow start this morning, Tescoman wasn’t due before 11:00 so we had plenty of time to potter. Unlike some of the boaters passing this morning. It was one of those “sod the moored boats, I’m going just as fast as I please” sort of days.

Pulled pins from passing traffic…

There were quite a few boats about this morning, several topping up with water as they passed. The coal boat, NB Zingaro, also moored on the offside, just down from the waterpoint, and was doing brisk trade.

We pushed across at around 10:45 after I’d removed a load of plastic and some unidentifiable apparel from the propeller. That’s the first time I’ve had to go weed-hatch diving for months. We don’t seem to pick much rubbish up; what we do is usually removed by “chucking back”, giving a quick squirt of reverse.

There was a boat on the waterpoint so we tied up below Zingaro, and, with a bit of time to kill, bought a gas bottle off them. I found out that they too were expecting a delivery, several tonnes of coal.

And here’s their delivery man…

….closely followed by ours.
Luckily we’d been able to get around Zingaro and onto the waterpoint just as he arrived, else we’d have had to carry the groceries around the coal truck.
They were still transhipping solid fuel when we moved off towards Rugeley, fridge, wine rack, cupboards and water tank replenished.

We didn’t need any shopping, but I had to stop in Rugeley anyway to post a couple of letters, one the all-important Mother’s Day card. The moorings around Bridge 66 were busy as always, but we dropped into a slot in the shadow of the old factory on the offside.
The date stone on the canal-facing wall says 1886. I’m not sure what it was built for, although it involved transportation by canal. I imagine it’s been through a few reincarnations, and is for sale again, a “development opportunity”.

We’d just got tied up when an impressive hail shower blew over, so I waited a few minutes before setting off in search of a post box.

That duty done, we headed out through the fringes of the town to leave the built up area at Brindley Bank.

On Brindley Bank
Brindley Bank is a level “shelf” cut into the valley side above the Trent to carry the canal. It ends in a hard right turn to cross over the river on an aqueduct.

Over the Trent

We were planning to stop near Taft Bridge, about 20 minutes on, but the sky was looking full of another shower so we took advantage of the recently installed rings just up from the aqueduct. We’ll move up to Taft Bridge between showers tomorrow.

Locks 0, miles 2¾