An easy day to Rode Heath

We’ve had a lazy day today, not setting off before eight and boating for a bare two hours down Church Locks and the Lawton Treble (not to mention Hall’s Lock in between), arriving at Rode Heath, one of our favourite moorings, by ten. There was a fair bit of traffic about in both directions.

The towpath moorings are very busy here and we had to go on towards Thurlwood Lock to get a mooring on pins. Although there are rings in the towpath for quite a length, there’s no time restriction. Mind you, at this time of year, a lot of the boats are on passage anyway so don’t hang around more than two days at most.

Once we were all sorted out, I walked to the shop, leaving Sheila watering the plants. I only wanted a paper and as they’d sold out of The Independent was happy to settle for the i at 20p.

It would have been a cheap trip if I hadn’t noticed this month’s Canal Boat, with added Tillergraph (why?). And then this month’s Waterways World. And then I thought that a bottle of chilled rosé would be good on the well deck this evening.

In the end, I had to get the credit card out.

It’ll be a much longer day tomorrow, right down to Wheelock, so we’ll set off at seven aiming to arrive between 11 and 12. I just hope that there’ll be room to moor…