Not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4!

 December 9th

First I must talk about the towpath here at Atherstone, it's diabolical!! To be expected I suppose because lots of rain equals loads of mud. But the benefit, it deters those speed merchant cyclists, an added bonus and a win, win situation. But it did play havoc with my shopping trolley wheels. By the time the trolley had been dragged back from shopping, a good inch of mud had built up on the wheels, a good dunking in the canal was necessary for it all to be removed.

Five more locks to do and then miles upon miles of lock free cruising. It's onto the Ashby for us later today but first we had to tackle those locks.  

Had no qualms about them being full because a boat had passed us late yesterday afternoon, so straight into the waiting lock, and nearly at the top when in the distance a very welcome surprise awaited us. It looked like a CRT guy and volunteer were opening the bottom gates of the next lock. Gosh that was a turn up for the books. It's winter and nearly all lockies and volunteers pack up at the end of October and don't return until the following Easter. 

Wouldn't it be lovely if they saw us right to the top. Then a conversation with the volunteer told me another volunteer was at the next lock and that would be ready for me too.! Gosh a CRT guy and two volunteers, even more unusual in December. But that wasn't all, nope yet a fourth volunteer was at the top of the flight. Crikey, talk about keen. It's not as if many boats would be on the move at this time of year, in fact we found out that only two boats had descended yesterday, and one had gone up. That's a long day to be standing around waiting for some boat traffic to appear.

Not had a gongoozler for a while!

(look closely)

And that was the fourth volunteer getting the final lock of the flight ready for us.

 To the right of the photo below and where the bollards are, is the facilities. Not that easy to get alongside and very pleased today was a calm windless day. All we could do was top up the water tank and get rid of rubbish, no loo emptying as the elsan had all that red and white tape all over it.

There was no excuse for these two boats by the towpath to moor by the winding hole. Plenty of room in front. Some folk do like to make life difficult for others.

So back to the elsan problem. Still no sign of either the Atherstone or the Sutton Stop facilities at Hawkesbury Junction being repaired in the immediate future. One of the lockie volunteers mentioned an unscrupulous boater having pumped out their tank at the Atherstone top facilities and that was why it was blocked. A huge sign on the fence at these facilities says DO NOT USE THE ELSAN FOR SELF PUMPOUT. It can't get any plainer than that. Again, a selfish boater making it difficult for others. Not knowing how long it would be before we could get the cassettes emptied, and knowing we would be having visitors who would no doubt want to use the loo, we stopped at Springwood Haven and paid the £2 to empty both cassettes.

We didn't quite make the Ashby. In fact, we stopped just beyond Arbury Park Bridge about a 1/4 of a mile to the junction and about a mile to where the moorings on the Ashby were by bridge 3. It was getting cold, and late in the afternoon so we decided stop.  It will be tomorrow then when we turn onto the Ashby.

And seen on route,

And wildlife,