At Alrewas

15th & 16th July

Here we are again at Alrewas, the nearest thing we have to a permanent base. Yesterday was a straightforward and very pleasant trip from Branston, if you leave out the rain and the slog alongside the A38, noisy but unchallenging. We'd had a bit of a discussion about how long to allow for the trip, the aim being to arrive between half ten and eleven, thus optimising our chance of finding a spare mooring as boats moved off on thier own trips.

In the event, we didn't see many other boats on the move until Barton Turn, but after that there was a reassuring trickle of them coming the other way.

Having left Branston at ten to eight, we got to Alrewas lock at ten past ten. Since our consensus had been two and a half hours for the trip, this was pleasing. There were a couple of spaces on the moorings immediately above the lock. On arrival, we were assured by one of the other moorers that the totems showing 48 hour moorings didn't apply, which was not what we'd understood from the email exchanges with Robert Prigg at BW.

An email exchange with him since elucidated the explanation; they need planning permission to put up the extra two posts required to implement the planned restrictions, so it will be late in the year before the new arrangement is in place. In the meantime, the whole stretch remains a default 14 day mooring, despite the fact that some but not all of the posts have been uncovered and show 48 hours.

I've suggested that BW at least put up some explanatory notices on their notice boards, as many folk are now thoroughly confused about the situation.

As for the rest, things have gone well. I was able to get an appointment to see my GP this morning, by dint of being on the doorstep of the surgery when it opened at 8.15. We are now free to amble off for a few days, as the next port of call is Specsavers in Burton on Saturday the 25th.

I think we'll probably go to Fazeley and back, unless I get a call to see the physio about my still painful right shoulder in the interim.