Penkridge for the fun of it

2nd & 3rd August

The last two days have seen us go to Penkridge and back just for the fun of it, and it certainly was. We made a prompt start yesterday but still found ourselves in a moderate amount of traffic all the way to Penkridge. There were, however, no fishermen about, though this will certainly not be the case next Saturday, during the National Fishing Competition.

Progress was reasonably steady and after a couple of hours we were tied on our usual towpath mooring below Penkridge lock. As we were getting Sanity settled down, a chap came out of his garden gate and had a natter with Sheila, having recognised Sanity from when we were last here during the winter.

It was too soon to go shopping, so Sheila spent some time titivating the floral displays whilst I took advantage of a fast and stable internet connection.

We then walked down to the village centre and stocked up at the Co-op. We've started trying to build up stocks, as after we have left Burton we will have to go for ten days without being able to shop in a supermarket, and indeed it's not clear how much shopping of any kind we'll be able to do from Redhill in the first week. After that we will be eating with the wrgies and the only challenge will be to ensure we have sufficient alcoholic refreshment in stock.

This assumes, of course, that we make it to Redhill. According to the towpath telegraph, the Alrewas river section is in the yellow, caution mode, and both the Upper Trent and the River Soar are closed. The status of both of these changes quite quickly, so we must just hope we don't see too much rain in the next ten days.

The rest of Sunday passed very pleasantly. For much of the time it was fine enough to sit out on the bow; Sheila got her usual steady stream of admiring remarks from passers by as she continued to work on her crochet.

Today, we made a leisurely start as we wanted to do another shopping trip, and in any event only planned to reverse yesterday's boating. We had another good session in the Co-op and then went round to the baker's for a loaf of bread. Sadly, this baker doesn't believe in early morning starts and no fresh loaves were to be available much before ten o' clock. We then remembered that we had had this problem before.

I called in to the Co-op again to get some bread there and then caught up with Sheila on the way back to Sanity.

Then the fun began again. We needed to lock up to use the winding hole, and found there was already a queue waiting to come down. As I started Sanity turning into the winding hole, another boat appeared in the distance and had to hover as I completed the manoeuvre. We were third in the queue to lock back down and this pattern continued through Longford, Park Gate and Shutt Hill locks.

The boat crews were a mixed bunch, both in terms of skill and good manners. Some were very reluctant to leave their boats and help with the lock, whilst others, like ourselves, chose to send all available spare crew along to help speed the operation.

We'd planned to call in at Midland Chandlers to see if they had the right fuel filter and a battery top up device, but under the circumstances decided not to bother. Last time we were in there they couldn't identify which of their filters was the right one, and if they had the ingenious device for topping up batteries, I reckon I would have spotted it and bought it by now,

We got through Acton Trussell by just after twelve and have moored on a nice spot on the towpath just beyond. I topped up the batteries using my trusty bottle and funnel, and Sheila gave the flowers on the roof another going over and gave them a feed of Baby Bio.

Tomorrow we'll probably go back to Tixall and then gently wend our way south once more.