Cold dogs for breakfast this morning. For those not familiar with the saying, it is cooked left over cold sausages. Goes down a treat with fresh homemade bread and lashing of tomato ketchup!
Not to early when we left and within 10 minutes we found where Oleanna was moored. Mick and Pip waved to us as we sidled past, not sure when we will meet again because we are turning left at Fazeley heading towards Atherstone and Mick and Pip will turn right for Brum,
More rain today but with only a couple of hours cruise to reach Pooley Nature reserve, it didn't seem worth stopping.
Did I mention the hire boats on the move this week? You can always tell those that have hired before and those new to the game. Patience is needed for the newbies, I still remember how terrified I was the first time the tiller was thrust into my hand. And when a boat came toward me, I all but froze! So I wasn't surprised when this Alvechurch hirer nearly caused a head on collision. Trying to get one's head around which side of the canal to be on can be daunting, especially if one has come straight from driving on the left, but boats need to be on the right and pass left side to left side. We missed, he reversed, I stopped and one of his crew leapt a good 3 feet onto the bank with the centre rope to pull the boat out of the way. I wonder if long jump had ever been considered by that person because it was very impressive.
Not many boats moored at Fazeley, most surprising considering the great Easter getaway has started. And how long has those new paintings of birds been on the wall by the junction? Probably ages, or is my memory failing? Ian seems to think so. (hmm, who's Ian?)
Somehow at the junction a large branch got caught on the bow. The aqueduct crossing the River Tame seemed a great place to try and shake it free, and I took FS close to the edge in the attempt. Well, it failed, and it was only at the lock that it eventually broke free.
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Look closely at the photo above, you may also see that a bridge with a sweeping left-hand bend was coming up. As FS left the aqueduct a bow was suddenly seen coming towards us from within the bridge and at some speed, I might add. Why would anyone charge through a bridge 'ole? Well, this eff'ing idiot obviously thought it a good idea. I mean, there was no way of knowing if anything was coming. Blimey...FS into reverse...loads of smoke...FS skewed toward the bank more by luck than judgement. Then FS was finally seen, and evasive manoeuvres were made by that idiot, but did he slow down? Maybe a tad, but he put the bow toward the aqueduct entrance and nothing was going to stop him from going through, not even a boat that had just entered from behind us. Nop, they had to reverse out and get out of his way rather rapidly. Well, it left us a bit shaken, I can tell you. No photos, too busy stopping a collision, but I did take one once through the bridge.
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| Why would you charge through that? |
Glascote locks were a welcome distraction. As usual, it was a busy flight of two but for once the queue was from the top and luck was with us as a boat was just leaving the bottom lock.
From leaving the second lock, an hour later, and we moored at Pooley. Lunch over, off we went with Toffee to walk to the Golden Tower of Leaves obelisk at the top of an old slag heap,
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| Toffee at the bottom for scale. |
Loads of walks around here and of course, Toffee had to go and find the wettest, muddiest patch to go and play in. OMG, we may have to dunk her in the canal.
It's Atherstone flight tomorrow. Another early start 'cos I expect this flight to be busy.
And wildlife
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