East Mids Exploration: Day 25

There was very heavy rain early this morning, making a tremendous noise on the roof. But it had pretty much dried up by breakfast time. I noted on the last day of last year's trip that we seemed to take a while to get going, and it was the same this year. We were probably trying to delay the end of the holiday. However, we were off at about 8.20; I walked down to set the top lock and Adrian brought the boat. Kathryn came out to see us.

We met a single hander coming up the second lock, then at the third lock I could see a boat going down ahead of us. She said she'd wait for us in the next lock, and while she did that she also set the one ahead. It turned out to be a boat called Etherdolidoo-too, which we used to see moored at the Wolverhampton boat club at the bottom of the Shroppie. The current owner has done a great job painting it, and she's also doing up the inside.

When we got to the lock she'd set ahead, we were greeted by the angry boater of the day, who thought it should have been his. He did nothing by scowl and moan the whole time. Even when I asked if he wanted me to shut one of the bottom gates after we left, he could still only growl; I came close to leaving it open anyway.

We got to the bottom in an hour and a half, which was pretty good. Then it was just another hour and a half back to the marina. The sun was out, but there were also a couple of showers. The wind made the turn into the marina quite hard work, but helped with the reverse into our berth. We have mostly packed up, and are just having lunch before getting in the car and heading home.

6 miles, 7 locks. (399 miles, 181 locks)