A pleasant visit and cruise

14th & 15th February

After several days of very lazy starts, we got up reasonably promptly yesterday, and were away by 9.30. Tyrley Locks appear almost as soon as you've left Market Drayton behind, and they were with us, so we made short work of the five.

We'd planned to top up the water at the service point above the top lock, but after we'd put the hose out, the tap proved to be dry. There was no notice warning of a problem, so later in the day I emailed BW to ask if they knew it was out of action.

Then there was the steady chug through Woodseaves cutting. It was especially dank and gloomy on a cool grey day – we'd wondered about coming back this way with Jennie and John who are visiting today, but decided going on would be better.

Goldstone Wharf was reached in nice time for lunch. The pub here, the Wharf Tavern, had been recommended by a number of authorities, and we were pleased to see it was serving lunch during the week. A quiet afternoon followed – I emailed BW about the Tyrley water point, and sent a letter to Waterways World on the subject of BW's policy with regard to self pump out at their sanitary stations, but at the time of blogging haven't heard anything back from either.

Today we made another decent start (well, by 9 o'clock, anyway) so as to get Sanity looking nice and tidy for our visitors. It was a dull, cold morning, but not so windy as had been forecast, which was something.

Jennie and John turned up just before their expected time of 11, and we had a pleasant chug to Soudley and back, with the guests taking it in turn to steer.

The Wharf then lived up to its advance billing – a very decent pint of Bombardier, and excellent food at a reasonable price. Back at the boat we had a coffee before Jennie and John set off home.

For some reason we then sat around trying not to doze off (in my case successfully). It's been a quiet and relaxing pair of days – brighter weather is forecast for the weekend, but with a risk of the cut icing up, so we'll go back to Drayton tomorrow.