Kingsbury again

Friday 13 April

A single day's account today, as from tomorrow to Wednesday we will be in the connection black hole around Fradley and Alrewas, so the next chance I get to post will probably be Wednesday afternoon/evening.

We had a quiet night - actually I say this though it's not absolutely true. We had a night undisturbed by alarums, ducks, geese or manic contractors on the offside (see earlier posts for all these events). There remained, however, the steady thrum of noise from the main road to Tamworth, which crosses the canal several hundred yards from the mooring we had chosen.

It's a sad fact that almost nowhere on the canal system in the centre of England is it possible to escape road noise. Where we are tied now, at Bodymoor Heath at the foot of the Curdworth flight, the M42 transmits its noise across what would otherwise by the calm of Kingsbury Water Park. It's only by going out to the edges of the system that you can escape this constant reminder of the 21st century.

Anyroad up, after a relaxed but not lazy start, we were away by 8.45, and boated straight through to here, seeing a few boats on the way, but not in anything like such numbers as we'd had for the last few days. The Birmingham and Fazeley is in any event a less popular canal than the Trent and Mersey, and the big rush for the Easter holiday is nearly over.

We had time for a quick walk to the nearest hide before lunch, and managed to spot a particularly handsome teal pair, industriously dabbling. After lunch we decided to explore the rest of the Park, which is much larger than we'd realised at first - it was over a mile to walk to the main car park and info centre, and includes kids playgrounds, a farm, and a miniature railway, one of those ride on ones that's like an enormous train set. There's also a sailing club and a lake dedicated to jet skis. Hours of harmless fun for all the family, in fact like some of the attempts to negotiate Fradley Junction we've seen this week.

Back at the boat in time for a mid-afternoon cup of tea, we've settled down for a quiet evening. The sun has finally emerged, Graeme has rung to say that the latest house move is accomplished successfully, and all seems remarkably well with the world.