It’s been cloudy and breezy, with rain threatening but never actually materialising.
Not rare, but not exactly common on the canals, a pair of goldeneyes cruised past this morning
Over the Tame Aqueduct.
A little further along is the Tamworth Cruising Club’s headquarters.
Approaching Glascote Locks, with no-one waiting to go up…
…but with a boat in the bottom lock, and going nowhere.
The reason was a boat stuck in the top lock, wanting to come down but also going nowhere with the top gate stuck open.
We had about an hour’s wait till things started moving again, but the fix was temporary at best, involving a jack and brute force. Even then we had to scrape our way out of the chamber. The crew reckon that they’ll have to have a stoppage on Thursday.
After this little bit of excitement we had an uneventful cruise out of the suburbs of Tamworth.
Alvecote
It’s hard to believe, looking at the lush vegetation alongside the canal between Alvecote and Polesworth, that this is the site of the extensive Pooley Hall Colliery.
Even the spoil heaps have been adopted by scrub birch and gorse.
Pooley Hall, just visible through the foliage at this time of year, is a 16th century manor house, built by one of Henry VII’s favourites.
The moorings at the north end of Polesworth village were surprisingly quiet, only one boat on there.
We don’t use these anymore, preferring those past Bridge 52. It’s further to the shops but there’s wide open spaces for Meg.
This working boat (Alcor, I think) was suffering a bit of engine trouble in an inconvenient spot just through Bridge 53.
The moorings I mentioned were busy, so we cruised around the corner to another pleasant spot we’ve used before.
It’s been quite a bit quieter on the water today. I guess the Bank Holiday weekenders are back in their marinas.
Locks 2, miles 6
1 comment:
Sorry to disappoint you Geoff but those Goldeneye were just Tufted Ducks. The Goldeneye has a very different shaped head and beak.
Post a Comment