Set the alarm for early as Saturday morning. The reason being the All Blacks were playing Aussie in Sydney at 11.05am UK time and we wanted to get a few miles under the belt before we stopped..
So by 10.30am we had reached the top lock of the Glascote locks,2, passing through Tamworth.
Pulled over and had excellent internet signal so live streaming the game wasn't a problem.
The problem was the AB's played bad and the 12 all draw was better than they deserved..
At half time it was.....
Snack time for me....
We then moved forward to the lock landing waiting for a NB coming up....
A NB enters the lock as we wait..... Leonie chats with the lady from the NB who's dog bark bark barked at the entering NB. So Leonie told it to "Shut Up"..
The owner then told it to "Shut Up".. which it did..
When she told me and I said "why"?.. Leonie said "wouldn't you tell a naughty child to Behave itself"?...plus "it got on my Bloody nerves"...
A short time later we passed over a small aqueduct, Tame Aqueduct, and the person steering the approaching NB started waving his arm to suggest I move over to my right, starboard side.
The rules are to pass Port to Port and I'm already only 2 foot from the Armco rail on the canal side and in my lane is a row of moored boats. So if all goes to plan I continue forward until he passes then I swerve to the left and miss the moored boats. No, this tosser has left no room for me to move over. I look at his RH side and he's got about 12 feet until the soft foliage starts and plenty of deep water so I make suggestions that he move over. He then looks to his starboard side and decides Oh Yeah I should have looked and moves over to barely give me enough room. As we passed I told him he had a nice shirt on, I liked his hat, the set of binoculars in front of him were no good to a blind person, he basically shouldn't have a license to steer and stick this finger when the sun don't shine...
Bloody Useless All Blacks....
We moved on and passed through the village of Hopwas....
Standing tall....
The Litchfield Transmitting tower.... 1001 feet tall....
Then through ......
A cutting containing the Hays Wood... a scenic stretch...
Past this fella....
He makes and sells Stainless chimney flues... very well made too... He was sound asleep in his chair with his wares on display.... A lesser man would have helped himself.. The thought never crossed my mind...
Approaching Fradley Junction there's a small...
Swing bridge to open & close... Leonie was itching for some exercise so this was a starter...
The well known.....
The Swan pub... 200 yrs, aparrently with a Vaulted cellar room... never seen it...
Parked in the car park....
A couple of Classics... Triumph Vitesse... 1962 - 1971 with a six cylinder engine... and a E Type Jag.....
A short distance pass the junction is the first of...
Two locks... more exercise.. Entering Middle lock....
And lock number two....
Trying .. that's right trying to exit Shade House lock.. The gate would open not much more and we thought something was in the canal blocking it. The two of us tried pushing the beam, like really hard, but no it jammed. Two men, one pushing a woman in a wheel chair, came by and saw our troubles. The dude pushing said he could chuck the woman in to see if anything was down there.
She wasn't happy bout that so we set about a process of elimination. I got the pole off the roof and had a fish around, nothing, so then we tried again, no good, so we discussed the mechanics of the worn gate hinge and the physics of water and logic says the bloody thing should open.
We need to give it more Welly said one so my thoughts were to charge it with the boat but no, a Real effort by everyone was required excluding the wheel chair woman, she could prey maybe. With that we lined up on the beam and give it Shit and low and behold it opened far enough..
The Power of Prayer I say...
We thanked them and moved on. It was getting on in time about 6.30pm and we needed to be parking up.
It was then as we exited a narrow bridge hole and another line of moored boats were in my vision that I saw the unmistakable Flapping arm of Angry No, 2...well two arms actually, a his and hers..
Now I'm not the best NB steerer on the network but one thing I have worked out is that in tight situations and especially if the wind is blowing one needs some power on to have control.
The boat is doing like 100 RPM over tickover, in non NBers terms it means if you were walking home from the pub pissed, talking braille to yourself and thinking of an excuse to tell the missus why those two Aces cost you your pay packet, then I wouldn't be going fast enough to pass you.
Anyway we get closer and they both yell out slow down your going too fast...
We draw equal with them and I say, I'm not going any faster than you mate.
And then I say something like, Have a nice day..
Well the woman goes off like a screaming Banshee... Me and Leonie look at each other like Stunned Mullets... and then start laughing at her.
Unbelievable... The only thing we could put it down to was that she must have been drinking......
OHH.. she was a Ginng.....eerrr.....
We moored up shortly after... and slept with one eye open.... 21 miles and 5 locks.....
Today the sun was breaking through but the wind was still blowing adding a bit of a chill factor...
Don't know that it was too cold but...
This fella seemed froze to the spot....
Passed a nice allotment and the...
Happiest guy on the system works here....
Approaching Rugeley there's a...
Tight cutting under a bridge.. followed a NB through who bounced off the walls all the way...
And it wasn't a hire boat...
Turn a corner and the ......
Cooling stacks from the power station are in view......
It's the second power station to be built on the site this one commissioned in 1972. Coal fired the plant uses 1.6 million tonnes of coal a year which produces 240,000 tons of ash..
In 2009 it was converted to operate with Flue - Gas Desulfurization which removes the Sulferdioxide content from the flue gases... Environmentally friendly for the next 25 yrs....
So you see...
There's nothing to worry about residents of Rugeley......
Only two locks to go for the day...
Under the bridge to enter Colwich Lock...
And suddenly around the corner was a "Tribute" to none other than Compulsive blog reader from NZ....
That's right "Come On Down"...
Tammy... Hope you like the Blue....
Last lock done for the day...
Exiting the Haywood Lock at Haywood Junction...
Moored up...... Leonie went and picked some Strawberries. Hoped for Raspberries but they finished a week ago.....
Anyway Leonie...
Made meringue, cream to go with strawbs, and ice cream with caramel sauce....
Bloody Good Missus Ehhhh??....
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