North West Passage: Day 6

Last night's train journey was fine. This morning, there were quite a few boats working the locks as I walked up the towpath from the station. I liked the reflections of the water under the bridge at the top. Briar Rose is the fourth boat along.

I was pleased that the batteries were higher than when I left last night; by mid afternoon they were up to a hundred per cent, really showing the value of the solar panel.

Adrian arrived back a bit after 5pm. I have one more night shift to do. By the way, Atherstone station is quite bizarre. The building is now a vet's, and the only way to get from one platform to the other is to go back out onto the road, follow it under the railway lone, and come back up the other side.

North West Passage: Day 5

A non-moving day today, moored just across from the old hat factory. I've been asleep betweem night shifts, and Adrian went off to London this morning -- I saw him briefly on the opposite platform of Atherstone Station when my train arrived at about 9am.

My journey to London last night was a disaster. An exploding e-cigarette closed Euston Station for most of the evening, meaning my train was first delayed and then cancelled. At one point I was stranded at Northampton with no trains going anywhere, and a group of us got in a cab to Wellingborough to get the last train from there to St Pancras. The whole exercise took five hours door to door. Hopefully tonight's journey will be pain free.

North West Passage: Day 4

After putting in the hours to get the miles under our belts over the weekend, we had just a short hop to do today. We slept much later, and Adrian had a call to take at 10, so it was gone 10.30 by the time we set off. We'd been passed by quite a few old working boats, presumably coming back from the bank holiday gathering at Alvecote. I'm not sure if this one was there, but it was certainly the most unusual.

We had decided that if there was space at the top of Atherstone Locks we'd stop there, and if not we'd go down five to the moorings there. As it happened there was plentybof room at the top, so we picked a spot and moored up. We will be here for a couple of days now, as I have a set of night shifts to do, and Adrian has some meetings in London. We've been to check we know how to get to the station, and we've got some shopping in Aldi. Atherstone also has a busy high street with lots of independent shops, including a chaotic hardware store with almost everything you're ever likely to need.

2 miles, 0 locks. (60 miles, 24 locks)