On the Move

We had a nice selection of photos today & yesterday – as we chugged from the bottom of the Atherstone flight round to Tamworth and the Glascote flight of locks. But Skipper will insist on selecting ALL and then CUTting the images rather than COPYing them from the camera chip to the laptop and he lost em all, gone, into the cyber void. So just a few from late today. Thursday 24th April.

We picked up water at Grendon Wharf then chugged on towards Tamworth on St George’s Day (used to be St Edmund – our thanks to Stephanie on Raven for that info). Thru Polesworth and then down the two locks at Glascote, round the corner and moor up just past the aqueduct over the river Tame see http://vivatek.co.uk/summer-cruise1-day-10 – 2017’s cruise, exactly the same route & mooring place! Steve hurtled off on his Bickerton Bike – one of the best things we’ve ever bought for the boat. Having had a puncture on Sunday (fully repaired with a puncture kit – thanks JH for that), he was determined to head off to Halfords to see if could find a remedy – either some Kevlar reinforced tyres or goo to go inside. It was a trip of some miles to the wonderful (?) Ventura retail park, yep, don’t’ we love em but he returned with bike stuff and a wee shop from Sainsbury’s. Not an amazing mooring and about as far as you could get from Tamworth. We also discovered that Fazeley had lots of shops and settled down for fish n chips for two (small portions at £9.80 for 2).
Rain was forecast for Thursday, p.m., so we got going earlish, 0845. Pausing briefly after 20 mins, for Steve to yet again cycle to Sainsbury’s – as this is the closest point at Sutton Road bridge and they have put moring rings in here too. The Admiral required chocolate! Above is the bridge too far for today – No 85. For pix of the route, you’ll have to follow the link in the paragraph above – through Hopwas & Whittington – very pretty if a bit narrow & shallow at times
Moored just along from this marina and a short walk from the Plough, where we had a marvellous lunch (£13.95 for two courses). Steve had whitebait followed by Tom’s S&K pie whilst Viv had chicken parmigiana followed by affogato. All washed down with their excellent beers (Backyard brewery Blonde, Velo and Landlord). We did sit outside but it started to spit with rain and later on it really chucked it down but by then the crew of Adagio were all snoozing inside. More rain to come over the next few days.

So where are we? Day 20 so far. We are moored just past the entrance of the Lichfield canal – under restoration. This will link up with the Birmingham canal navigations.