Turned The Corner........

Monday morning got an early start, 11.15am, to reach the junction at  Autherley  and make a LH turn onto the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. After being in the "country" for 5-6 weeks arriving in Wolverhampton  saw the return of graffiti bridges, plastic bottles and rubbish bags in the canal, and sharpened stake security fences etc,. 500metres up the new canal the Smart Phone told us there was a supermarket nearby so with no moorings visible we run aground 2 metres off the canal side, down with the boarding plank and off went Leonie following the instruction of  the phone. Only a 3 minute walk each way we were soon all ciabata'd up...

Half way through a Narrow section, no passing here,  the bridge ahead ending the narrows....

Exiting the Low bridge ending the narrow's.....

We motored on for another 4 miles, Leonie was walking the tow path ahead cos, there was some nasty sharp blind approach bridges, then rounding a bend she yelled, "look there's  AreAndAre, Sandra and Barry from Gisborne. Knocking on the roof soon saw Sandra  and Barry out on the towpath, after the intro's we made a spot and moored for the night. Reading their early blog's on NB Northern Pride was probably one of the single most reasons we decided to do this canal adventure.

Leonie, Sandra, Barry and a fellow NB,er on the towpath having a "Yak"..

Played cards, me not very well, until 1.15am on their boat but I had an excuse. Barry introduced me to his Famous "Home Brew"and it was easy to drink.........Thanks for a great evening...


Yesterday we passed under the  M54 motorway on two separate occasions on different canals and both times the "Shelter" area was being used as a paint booth/ workshop with a NB moored under each one. Thy had generators lights sanders etc, prepareing and painting. I Presume they "Pay Rent"....

 

 

 

 

These two "Mutts" were the rear entrance "Ushers" under the second bridge..



Prepared to move today, started the boat, nice and sunny it was, then Barry and Sandra came and we sat and talked as the motor ran for about an hour then we decided to turn off motor and stay where we are. You can't stuff up a plan if you don't have one....

I got out the sanding stuff and prepared  some paint damage caused by a lift bridge, Leonie walked the 4 mile return where Barry and Sandra took the boat for a water top up.
tomorrow we'll start the engine again.....