Best Laid plans

Monday 25th June
Well we have been home for a few weeks and went to Wales in our caravan, the weather was fab and so were the roads! Not a pothole in sight!! We have never been to Wales apart from on the boat to Llangollen and we were pleasantly surprised how lovely it is and the people were friendly too.
When we were on our way back to the marina on our last cruise on the boat we saw Nb Derwent 6 moored on the Trent & Mersey canal and so we stopped for a chat with them as we haven't seen them for a while, they were heading for Lincoln.

Al had been poorly but was on the mend when we saw her and as usual she always has a smile. It was nice to see you both.

When we left them we didn't travel far before we came across a tree that was almost blocking the canal, it wasn't far from Weston Lock.

We had to go under it.

Anyway it has all been cleared now, so I expect there were quite a few logs for any boaters near by.

On Friday 22nd June we left home about 6.45 am and headed back to the marina and Kev was going to wash the boat & the car too, we have a cover for the car and it has to be clean and free from dust before you put the cover on. I was going to go for some shopping and we were hoping to be on our way that afternoon, unfortunately we had left something very important at home so it completely knackered our plans! Kev had to drive all the way home while I stayed with Jaz on the boat, so by the time Kev got back to Shardlow it was mid afternoon. We decide to stay in the marina overnight and we were up early once again so Kev washed the car and once it was dry he put the cover on and we were on our way out of the marina about 7.45am on Saturday morning. We worked all 5 double locks on our own so didn't share any of them with another boat. When we got to the visitor moorings at Willington we moored and stayed there Saturday night, we went for a couple of beers early evening and a couple of games of pool then went back to the boat. 

 Looking both ways out of the side hatch Sunday morning

We pulled across to the services to get rid of some rubbish and empty a cassette on Sunday morning then Kev walked Jaz while I followed on the boat. The day was lovely and got warmer as the day went on, when we got to Alrewas we moored just after the footbridge and sat in the sun with a couple of cold beers.

Kev took this photo last night, Balloon coming down to land.

R&R this morning.

This morning before we left Alrewas we popped to Co-op for a few bits and then went to the butchers for some steak which we will have on our new little bbq today! As we were about to leave this morning, two boats came up from behind us heading to the lock so when they had passed Kev let go and set off while I walked with Jaz to the lock, a boat had just come down the lock and so one of the boats ahead of us was able to go straight in, there was another two boats coming down so it wasn't long before we were up the lock and on our way towards Fradley. We turned left at the junction onto the Coventry canal, what beautiful weather the sun was getting warmer and when we passed Tamhorn House Bridge we pulled over and moored.

We passed these CRT workers building up the bank.

Kev sat in the sun now were moored.

Our plans have changed for this cruise, We had originally planned on going North West via the Shroppie then across Middlewich Branch but the breach on this branch stopped that. We then booked a passage in to Liverpool but the culvert collapse stopped that so we decided to head South and spend a few weeks on the Thames.