and now, it's Gnosall

Just as I was finishing off the blog last night, who should appear but Windsong and Serenity. We knew they were coming up from behind, so weren't too surprised to see them. It's always nice to catch up with fellow bloggers, and we had a good old natter in the wonderful sunshine.

The mooring at Bridge 7 would be absolutely idyllic, were it not for the M54, the noise from which can be heard as a continuous gentle roar, dying down a little at night. It's not as bad as many locations, but it is a shame that so many of our most rural stretches of canal have been affected by motorway construction.

Notwithstanding the background sounds, we had a decent night's kip, and were up even earlier than before, setting off at half seven to take advantage of the morning's beauty. As we were working down the lone lock of today's programme, Wheaton Aston, Sheila got into conversation with Jim and Sheena off Arlanza, who are thinking about their next boat, and admitted to an interest in getting a Braidbar. The upshot was that we stopped on the towpath below the lock and showed them round Sanity Again.

They made all the right noises (what judgment! what taste!), and we hope to see them again at Crick Show. This took up a bit of time, and a bit more was spent on the nice new wharf at Turner's, filling up with red diesel at 74.9 pence per litre for domestic use.

It all put us back a shade, schedulewise, so we had lunch on the move, or rather, I did, and Sheila was just starting hers when Cowley Tunnel appeared in the distance. We've tied on the first set of visitor moorings; there's a good 3 signal here, but almost no Vodafone one, unless you prowl up and down the towpath or climb the bank alongside it, when a measly single bar appears on the phone.

It takes you back to the bad old days, when mobile phone networks were just spreading out from the towns. No matter, it's another great location, with a butcher and a general store just down the road. It's going to be pork "escallops" (the butcher's name for them; they look like loin chops to me) with garlic marinade, mash and sweetcorn tonight.