The Boots pharmacy problem turned out very well yesterday. When I went back, they hadn't had the afternoon delivery they'd been expecting, so couldn't supply the two missing items. When I pulled a face and pointed out that that meant us spending an extra day in Drayton, they arranged to collect the stuff from another local pharmacy.
Full marks to them, though not to the Boots supply chain.
As planned, therefore, we made a prompt start this morning, setting off at half seven and plodding past all the offside mooring between Drayton and Betton Wood cutting. After that, we made faster progress on a very pleasant morning. It clouded over from time to time, but was still definitely summer rather than autumnal weather.
The original schedule had been to moor at the bottom of Adderley flight, but Sheila had the bright idea of going on to Audlem, working down the top two locks and tying on the visitor moorings in the pound below. I'm glad it was her idea, as it was her turn to lock, and those moorings were absolutely chock-a-block, leaving us with no option but to carry on down the Thick.
I offered to take over, but she preferred to stay with our established routine for the day. There was a lot of traffic by now, so that we were working one up, one down at most of the locks. Nine extra locks later, we found a mooring below 11, in the long pound above the village. It's not our favourite stop as, although a signed and ringed mooring, it has the dreaded Shroppie ledge underwater, and we still haven't acquired any go-kart tyres which are the only really effective form of fender on the ledge.
No matter, it's only for one night. After lunch we walked into the village, visiting the butcher (Market Drayton doesn't have one in the centre) and getting an Independent from the Co-op.
Tomorrow, we'll water below Lock 13 and then carry on to Coole Pilate.
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