Penkridge to Wheaton Aston

Sunday 13th March
Firstly I have to say a happy Birthday to Lee (Kevs son) hope you had a good day!
We left Penkridge this morning and it was a nice bright sunny morning although it was still breezy & cool in the shade. When we got to Gailey we realised that the last time that we were there we were moored ahead of Rock & Roll with George & Carol & we were on 4EverMoore and we were iced in!
What a difference today

Gailey Round House

We passed the Fox & Anchor & we call this bend "Busters Bend" as this is where we once came round in the opposite direction and we decided to pull across & moor & Kev jumped off the boat followed by Buster! Unfortunately Buster didn't make it onto the towpath with Kev & ended up in the canal! He is not a water baby & was heading towards the opposite side of the canal so Kev had to jump in after him and pull him out as he wasn't doing well and I can only say he swims like a brick!!

I was allowed to take R&R through the narrow cutting & never met any boats coming the other way Phew!!

This Heron had a good catch!

Autherley Junction

Onto the shropshire Union Canal

Brewood Church Spire

After a good days cruising we moored at Wheaton Aston before the Tavern Bridge19

Back on board

Saturday 12th March

Kev got home on Tuesday teatime & he decided that he would  get to Great Haywood on his bike on Thursday as he had a few things he wanted to do before we left Great Haywood Marina. Samuel was going to Majorca yesterday (Friday) accompanied by his mums friend Helen, so I was taking them to Liverpool airport for their check in @ 4pm, they will be flying back on Sunday 20th. I got to Great Haywood about 6pm after travelling on the M6 which was absolutely horrendous as traffic was crawling at times!! Oh to get on the canal! Anyway when I arrived to the entrance of the marina Kev was there to meet me and got Buster out of the car and walked him to the boat while I drove down to the berth and started unloading the car. We went to the Shamla Indian restaurant for something to eat, and once again it was lovely (if you like Indian food that is) the staff are so friendly and very helpful there. It had been a fantastic day weatherise, just a pity I had spent a lot of it in the car.

What difference this morning as it was cloudy, cool and breezy! Kev went to the office to get our keys and to see if we could return in 2 weeks and also get some gas, we have decided to do a circular trip and Kevs friend Nigel and Kevs son Lee will join us next Thursday to spend a few days with us. Lee will go to Liverpool airport on Sunday 20th to pick Sam & Helen up then he will drop Sam off with us and take Helen home to Hull as he will be going home to Hull that day. So we are looking forward to having people with us.
We left Great Haywood about 11am this morning and headed to the junction for the Staffs & Worcs canal.

The staffs and Worcs canal with the junction behind us

We passed this boat on the way obviously not going very far!

Kev had mentioned that a fellow blogger was at Penkridge and that we may either see them there or pass them today, well not long after we had got through Deptmore lock we came through Roseford bridge and there was a boat coming towards us and low and behold it was Parisian Star with Mick & Ellie! unfortunately Kev was down below making tea ( where he should be) and I only realised who it was as they were passing us, so sorry we never got a chance to have a natter.

Another female busy housekeeping

We arrived at Penkridge 48hour moorings at about 4pm and moored up for the night

A Different Horse power!

Thursday 20th March
Well we got back home on Saturday afternoon and got unpacked etc, we had a great first trip as the new owners of R&R apart from the business with the weed hatch but thats boating! Kev went back to work on Monday  but had to take his motorbike to a garage a few miles from us and left it there while he is away as it needs an MOT.  We are looking forward to our next trip on the boat which will be  about 11th April and we are hoping Kev's friend Nigel will be joining us on his boat NB Tomorrow.
Meanwhile I have been busy giving the grass it's first cut this year and also this morning I went down to muck out my friend Pam's horse Stella and turn her out into a field close to the farm, I have been helping her with Stella through the winter as she struggles a bit as she is manager of a pub in the next village to ours. Actually Stella belongs to her daughter Mayanne who is working near London as a groom so it is left to mum to make sure the horse is looked after!

Stella enjoying her brekkie!

A different sort of horse power to Rock & Roll!

Part of our garden with it's first haircut!!

And into Gt Haywood marina

Saturday 15th March

It was foggy first thing yesterday a couple of boats came past with their headlamps on, by the time we were ready to leave our mooring about 9.30am it was clearing.
Only a short journey this morning to Great Haywood Marina, we are leaving Rock & Roll there for a few weeks while Kev is offshore.

Haywood Lock is our last lock this trip

Anglo Welsh hire boats through the bridge at the Staffs & Worcester canal

And finally entering Great Haywood Marina

Once we were in the marina we were given a temporary berth while they sorted a berth for us so I took Buster for a walk & Kev emptied the loo & got rid of rubbish (all good fun eh!) Our car was still at Droitwich Marina & Kev's BMW motorbike is here in the carpark, and so we both went on the bike to Droitwich so Kev let George know we were going so we could pop & see them. 

When we arrived there Carol had kindly made some sandwiches and a cuppa so we sat in their caravan chatting for a while, it was nice to see Molly back to her old self too.

Anyway after a while we said our goodbyes to George & Carol and I set off in car & Kev on bike back to Great Haywood and Kev went back to see Steve in the office to see where he wanted us to move the boat to, we got a berth sorted and got tied up on the pontoon moorings.

About 7pm we had a walk down to the towpath at Anglo Welsh to see if we could spot Sue on No Problem as we were going to say hello but no sign of them! So we had to go to the Clifford arms instead! Hope to catch you another time Sue!

Down the hatch again!

Friday 14th March

We moved a short distance yesterday from Wolseley  Bridge and moored near Shugbrough Hall, the fog was lifting slowly.

Kev went back down the weed hatch yet again to find....

Kev has been down the weed hatch this trip more than in all the time we had 4EverMoore!

Just unlucky I expect.

Once he had cleared the weed hatch he managed to wash the other side of the boat.

We took Buster for a walk to the junction of the Staffs & Worcester canal and there were quite a few Anglo Welsh hire boats as usual & they are all ready for customers!! We then walked back to the boat & the sun was out so we sat in the cratch with a lovely cold beer. There had been a steady flow of boats about yesterday & is nice to see people on the move.

Slowly making our way to Gt Haywood

Thursday 13th March

On Tuesday we left our mooring at Sutton road bridge and headed to Fradley, as we got to  Huddlesford junction we saw 2 swans one of which was on a nest.

The male was checking his mate was keeping her house in good order!
As we carried on up the Coventry canal we saw a new marina.

This is Kings Orchard Marina

There were a few boats moored there, it all looked pristine!

We headed on to Fradley and moored just before the water points before the swing bridge at the junction. We had a walk to the rubbish point then walked back & went for a pint at the Swan we even sat in the sunshine outside the pub! We returned to the pub around 8pm for a couple of drinks, there was a couple from a shared ownership boat that had tied up in front of us in there having something to eat and we were chatting to them for a while. They would be leaving Wednesday morning to head to Great Haywood marina where they would be handing their boat over to the next shared owners & said they would try not to wake us, but we said we are early risers so we would probably already be up!

Anyway yesterday morning (Wednesday) we moved froward to the water point where we filled up with water and then we left the mooring, I headed off to open the swing bridge for Kev and with windlass in hand I set off to get the first lock ready for Kev. It was quite a cold morning and didn't brighten up till we were close to Rugeley, we wanted to moor in Rugeley so I could pop to Morrisons,   as I went up to the bridge 65 I noticed there was a new Tesco supermarket (well new to me as it wasn't there last time we were on the canal) Once I had returned from Morrisons we had a bite to eat then set off and around 3.30pm we moored just through Wolseley bridge 70.

We went to the Indian restaurant which is only a short walk where we had probably the best Indian meal ever and the staff are friendly and efficient too so if anybody is passing this way and enjoys a nice indian then The Shimla Palace is worth the visit.

As we walked back to the boat it was foggy and this morning (early Thursday) when I let the dog out it was very foggy, mind you I did a really silly thing I forgot the towpath had changed and I unzipped the cratch cover to let Buster jump out and just in time I saw that I was only going to let him jump into the canal!! I did stop him in time then let him out the towpath side Phew!!

Our first visitor

Monday 10th March
There was a lovely sky just as it was getting dusk at our mooring at Wiggins Hill bridge

It was lovely and peaceful here after being in Birmingham & was nice to let Buster off on the towpath with no other people or dogs about.

This morning Kev set about washing the side of the boat (towpath side) & I helped him polish it! 

We left the mooring just after 9.am and made our way to Fazeley  as we were going to get our first visitor at Drayton footbridge. Kev's friend Nigel has recently bought a boat and was looking forward  to come and see ours.

Kev & I had  a bite to eat (although Nigel had already eaten Fish & Chips!!) so we all had a cuppa. Kev showed Nigel the parts of the boat he is most interested in.... the engine etc!! Once Nigel had left we headed off to Fazeley junction & turned left onto the Coventry canal we moored just before bridge Sutton Road Bridge about 4.15pm. We had a walk to Asda & also went into Maplins for an adaptor as Kev had some VHF radios he had got from work and we had been unable to charge them as they are Chinese and so the plug was a flat pin one anyway success we got one.

Our mooring at Drayton Footbridge with not a very good photo of Kev at the stern but if you want somewhere to park your bike?......