Wednesday 10 April 2013

On to Fradley

We had a very jolly time in the George and Dragon yesterday, and I was glad I'd had the foresight to post early. Not that I was legless, you understand, but it was good to be able to subside into the easy chair and know that I didn't have any skilled tasks to do until today.

The plan this morning was to move onto the waterpoint at around nine and fill the tank whilst I nipped into the village for stuff. This worked well, and by half nine or so we were on our way up the locks, followed by ex-OwnerShips Crompton.

Although not as sunny as the weekend, the weather was pleasant enough and has indeed improved again as the day's worn on. We got to Fradley just after eleven and found no difficulty in mooring. The visitor moorings here aren't hugely busy, in fact, though there's been a fair bit of coming and going.

Sheila had started a washload as we went along and we had to leave the engine on for a bit after we'd arrived to finish it off. I used the time to mask off and touch in the damaged coach line, having got the main blue area done before I went to the pub yesterday. There's just a bit more to do where I couldn't mask both the upright and horizontal lines at the same time.

Once that was done we made an expedition to the service area and disposed of rubbish and recycling. Walking round to Junction Lock revealed that the shop wasn't open today and doesn't appear to sell coal any more. The service area looks pretty bare in fact.

We've got one bagsworth of coal in the box, and although we're not using it very fast now, it's a bit of a concern as to whether it will last until we get to Great Haywood, the next likely source. Viv Scragg on Monarch and Grimsby used to deliver around here, but an enquiry on CWDF elicited the info that she's sold Monarch and Grimsby is being modified at the moment, so is no longer trading.

Apparently Mike Askin on Victoria trades around here now, but isn't about at the moment.

Heigh ho, I'm sure we'll cope, especially as things are definitely warming up. We plan to stay here for two days, then move on to the towpath near Kings Bromley for the weekend.

4 comments:

Adam said...

Won't Kings Bromley marina have coal?

Bruce in Sanity said...

Quite possibly, but I'll have to be desperate to start manoeuvring a 70 footer in there…

Cheers

Bruce

Anonymous said...

Callisto gets as far as Fradley, might be worth trying to contact them. www.canalcarrying.com.

Andy ( the one who has Lyra the GSD )

Bruce in Sanity said...

Thanks Andy, I'll try them.

All the best

Bruce