It was a beautiful morning, sunny and still but quite chilly, especially in the shade. We set off at about 8.15 and we soon passing the old Hartshill yard.
It was a little over an hour to the top of Atherstone Locks, and as we came through the bridge a volunteer lock keeper jumped up and open the gate of the top lock for us. He then worked the bottom paddles while I went and topped up the second lock. The blackboard at the top of the flight said there had been one boat up so far, and we were the first one going down. There was another lock keeper at lock 3, so the same thing happened there.
Then at Lock 5 we started meeting boats coming up, so that each lock was ready for us. At lock 8, the boat coming up was Percy, with Nev and Rachel heading for the Ashby, so it was nice to have a quick catch up with them.
The lock below was one of the few that didn’t have a boat coming up. Then at the bottom lock, a motor boat, Victoria, was coming up — and because they had a butty with them they immediately turned the lock for that. The steerer was under instruction, so it all took rather a long time. I felt sorry for the boats following them up the flight.
Even with that slight delay, we did all eleven locks in an hour and forty minutes, which is exceptionally good going. We stopped at the water point at Bradley Green to top up the tank, get a load of washing on, and have a cup of tea. We carried on through Polesworth, and then just before Alvecote we saw James and Debbie on Ernest (formerly Lois Jane) as they tied up. We stopped just beyond the next bridge, before Alvecote Marina, at about 1.30. We walked up through the nature reserve to the Golden Tower of Leaves at the top of a former spoil heap. It’s been there since 2011, but this is the first time we’ve been up to it.
We walked back along the towpath, hoping James and Debbie would still be there — but they weren’t. Back at the boat, we washed and dried one side of the boat at which point it tried to rain, although not very successfully. This evening, we are seeing Helen and Andy Tidy
10 miles, 11 locks. (78 miles, 37 locks)
1 comment:
Lovely to meet you both today. I'm sorry I was loitering in the lock - fixing the tyre wrap back onto the front fender! Have a safe trip, I look forward to reading the full daily journey blogs. Take care both of you .
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