January 2nd
That rain overnight, woke us up in the wee hours. Good...I wanted that stern rope to have an extra drenching, make sure all that dog poo was out!
It was nice to get up at our leisure and take our time setting off. Just 7 miles to do before the Atherstone locks and a further 2 miles down the flight. But we hadn't anticipated the delay at the locks! If we had we would have set off earlier.
Passing Boot Wharf the usual amount of boats on the offside as well as those moored on the towpath side. This time of year meeting another boat would be sheer bad luck indeed. There is not enough room for two boats to pass by, you see. Thankfully it was clear, still a bit of a challenge though.
Has anyone ever wondered about those orange blobs on the grass or cladding along the towpath? It baffled us for a while until Ian had a light bulb moment. Of course, it's to show where trees need cutting back on the offside. You're all probably saying how on earth didn't you realise that? Well we didn't because when we first saw them during the summer, no offside veg had been cut back. Now of course, it's pretty obvious.
And heard the call of a parrot, just the one. Unusual for them to be alone.
It was nearing Atherstone that a boat pulled away in front, but hang on, it was closely followed by another. Blast it was a boat on tow. That scuppered the quick descent on the Atherstone flight we thought!
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So we made a decision, let them get ahead whilst we stop at the facilities. The time was 11.45. How long would it take us to do 11 locks? Before we could get to the facilities first we had to wait by the bridge. The towed boat was taking up all the canal. Ah but then the realisation, gosh it's the Candy boat.
Once the way was clear we headed to the left and the facility mooring. Bit hang on!!! Oh blast, a boat was already on it! Into reverse and pulled onto the landing. Looked like we would be following them down after all.
It was slow-going...very! After 15 minutes it was finally my turn to descend. And then gosh again, who should turn up behind us but Paul and Viviee Barber with their historic boat Whitby. Paul is a boat builder at Sheetstores on the Erewash Canal. Click HERE to see his Facebook page. And behind him yet another historic boat, didn't get the name but it all meant the locks would be busy now for quite a while.
Ian helped Trevor on the Candy Boat as much as possible to keep the whole cavalcade moving. Then at the bottom lock by Atherstone town moorings they pulled over to allow us all to get past.
Now we could get a move on, and with Ian lifting a paddle for Paul, we had all descended to the bottom lock by roughly 14.45. Crikey, that was 3 hours to do the 11 locks! It usually takes us about 2 h 15!
One thing with all the boats descending, a vast quantity of the water was flowing from bywash. No way could one get out unscathed. Banging the wall and getting pinned, that was my lot today!
We stopped below the final lock 11, waved Paul and Vivienne farewell and within an hour, the Candy Boat had also arrived. They moored near to us but we didn't get to speak to them again.
And wildlife
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