Yes, just one month after arriving at our new mooring at Grendon Wharf we left this morning to commence our Summer Cruise. We had been waiting for our postal voting papers to arrive, Chris’ has but Joy’s hasn’t despite being requested on the same day but we decided we were unlikely to see it until after the weekend so will have to figure out some way of getting it later.
We reversed up to the water point to fill up and had to wait while a passing boater finished washing his boat (!) then it was more reversing, through the bridge to the winding hole to turn around and commence our journey.
An hour’s boating and we had seen these cute little Shetlands, passed under the busy railway line where we saw three Virgin trains flash past in as many minutes, through Polesworth, then Pooley Country Park and on to Alvecote where we stopped for lunch while we waited for the boatyard to have theirs before emptying our poo tank and purchasing a bottle of gas to see us through the next couple of months.
As you approach Alvecote there are tantalising glimpses of the old Alvecote Priory but we have always failed to get a picture because of the trees, so here’s one from Wikipedia.
By David Rogers, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6043485
Onwards through Ammington and the two Glascote Locks, where we met boats at both, which helped to share the work. Very soon we were in Fazeley where we spotted a sunny mooring opposite Peel’s Wharf and C&RT’s offices so we decided to call it a day.
After Scouse1 (cooked in our new pressure cooker) & Red Cabbage for tea we went for a short walk into the town and found a plethora of takeaways, three pubs and a Tesco Express within a few hundred yards. We bought a packet of butter and then really spoiled ourselves with a bag of radishes and an aubergine from the reductions shelf at 3 pence each!
I did a little gardening afterwards, as the tomatoes on the roof were looking more than a bit windswept, I drilled some holes in my planter and inserted some canes to give extra support and pruned off the most straggly bits (I’ve no idea what I’m doing really!)
Tomorrow we plan to move on for a few hours to Fradley Junction, no sense in rushing things!
1) Scouse is a type of lamb or beef stew. The word comes from lobscouse, a stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout Northern Europe, which became popular in seaports such as Liverpool. Wikipedia