Off we go again

Wednesday 18 April

Today we wanted to set off for Great Haywood and points North, but were pointing the wrong way. People who are feeling brave have been known to wind in the river section below Alrewas Lock, or at a winding hole in the Wychnor moorings between the river section and Wychnor lock. People have also been known to get into serious problems with these strategies, and Sheila, whose turn it was to steer, is nothing if not prudent in these matters.

This meant that we planned to go down both Alrewas and Wychnor, use the official winding hole below the latter, and then come back up. Since there still seems to be a lot of traffic about, even though the summer school term has started, an early start was indicated. We set off at 7.45, and by 8.30 were back on the Alrewas water point pointing the right way. Sheila ran the washing machine while I nipped off to buy a paper, bread, and two of Coates's pasties.

At 9.10 we were approaching Bagnall Lock, and found four boats waiting. The start was not quite early enough then. I was on the bike, so the next few hours meant that I kept arriving at locks to find one of our precursors (pre-cursers?) working up, helped them up, and then worked the lock one or more times until it was Sanity's turn. Then back on the bike, off to the next lock and repeat.

By 11 we were working up Hunt's Lock, the first of the Fradley flight of 5, and three hours later we'd arrived above Shade House, the top lock. This is slow going for five narrow locks, but nothing like as bad as our record, which was the day after the IWA National Festival at Burton. That day we arrived at the foot of Hunt's to find 11 boats waiting and it took six hours to clear the flight. Several domestics were to be observed during that time, and in fact I was the unwilling spectator for one such this time.

As they say, if you are in a hurry, you shouldn't be boating, but not everyone has grasped the truth of this observation. Slightly to our surprise, the moorings above Shade House were half empty, and we decided to stop for the night. The Coates pasties were duly devoured, followed by a quiet afternoon of reading, loafing and blogging.

Two wildlife events in the late evening - as we were planning to go to bed, we heard this weird and alarming noise coming from the copse across the field. After some thought, we realised that it was a vixen, screaming.

The other was less exciting - we had our first mosquito of the year in the boat, which gave us a chance to try out the new tennis racquet type fly killer. It works on the same principle as the UV attracting ones in a butcher's or cafe - three sets of mesh are charged up and the insect flying (or being swatted) between them is fried by a discharge. After a bit of chasing around, the mossie was duly zapped.

Thursday 19 April

We set off at 8.15, planning to get to at least Colwich, or perhaps Great Haywood. This is a bit of water we know well, although we've not done it this year, this being the bit we missed by going round through the BCN to get from Haywood to Alrewas, Armitage rail bridge being stopped.

It's a lovely piece of rural canal, with Rugeley in the middle to make you appreciate the rest even more. I was steering, so Sheila was able to to take it easy, once she'd worked Woodend lock. She was rewarded by the sight of a pair of blackcaps, the first she's seen for a long time.

Armitage signals the start of the industrial bit, though I quite enjoy it. There's the narrows in the vicinity of the Armitage Shanks porcelain factory, which looks like the set of Carry on at your Convenience, then the opened out and partly re-bridged over Armitage tunnel. It's narrow and bent, so the crew has to get off and precede the boat, to prevent awkwardnesses with boats nose to nose in the narrows.

After that, there's the Gothic splendour of Hawkesyard Priory, now a conference centre or something, and then there's no escape, it's Rugeley for you, my lad. Rugeley Power Station is having a new chimney added, as part of a desulphuretting plant. Elanor is working on the financial management of this, so it was interesting to see what she's been telling us about for the past several months.

As usual, we stopped to shop and lunch in Rugeley, then set off again. We were making good time, so decided to go on to Great Haywood. There was a short queue at Colwich lock, but by 3.30 we were on a sunny mooring looking out at Shugborough Hall, below Great Haywood lock.

Tomorrow we plan to turn left at the junction and run up to Penkridge, where we can do a self pump out, then back to Haywood to meet our friends John and Nev Campbell, just after they've taken delivery of their new boat from Ben Harp.