Saturday 18th August 2007
Wood End Corner - Bradley Green Bridge (19½ miles, 4 locks)
Today started dull and overcast. We goat past Fradley Junction before it got too busy and turned south onto the Coventry Canal, stopping for water and breakfast just after the swing bridge.
The weather seemed to be improving as we headed down to Whittington, past Streethay Wharf, famous for its stretching operation. Here they appeared to have taken a 70ft boat and turned it into an 80ft boat....
After shopping at Whittington and lunch sitting by the towpath, we set off just as the rain started. This continued for the rest of the day.
Glascote Locks were very slow due to some broken paddle-gear which BW weren't going to mend for another week. Fortunately for us, all the traffic was in the other direction. I counted thirteen boats in the queue. The crew of one boat said they had already been there two and a half hours.
Jen had decided to walk the towpath with the dogs. At the outskirts of Tamworth, I slowed down through a bridge hole they could get back on the boat. There were some kids hanging around but they gave a friendly wave when I greeted them, and after we got under the bridge, they kindly shared an egg with us. They must have forgotten to tell me that I was supposed to catch it, and it splattered on the roof of the boat, sending yolk, white and shell over an impressively large area. I can imagine them explaining to their mum why there were only five eggs in the box she sent them out to buy.
By the time we stopped for the night, most of my Goretex clothing had forgotten that it was waterproof, especially my spare pair of shoes. The left shoe of my other pair was still drying out after yesterday's dip. The dogs were fed up with the weather too, especially Tim, who had come to the conclusion that he hated being on the boat. We decided that our planned trip up the Ashby Canal could wait for another time, and that we would get to Blisworth as quickly as possible so we could escape the summer weather.