Tuesday 6th April

Despite being moored in a town we had a very quiet night. Millie is now only getting up if either of us get up and then its a battle to see who can get through the bedroom door first!

Atherstone is an old town with lots of old fashioned shops, though I did find an Aldi and a new Co-op. There should be a market on a Tuesday but there wasn’t one today - I guess Easter must have got in the way, anyway I got everything that was on my list. Richard stayed at the boat and did manly chores! We then set off down 11 locks, 5 in the town and then 6 a little way out. They are all narrow locks now (just room for one boat) so aren’t as sociable as the locks on the Grand Union! We were pleasantly surprised while skirting Tamworth, we did think it might be grotty but the ordinary houses running down to the canal had really pretty gardens. However we have noticed that the Coventry Canal has lots of rubbish along its banks – much more than the Grand Union. The junction with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was quite a grand affair with a very smart British Waterways office building there – pity they couldn’t have spent the money on tidying up the banks :-( We tied up for the night in the middle of nowhere - as is our wont – much nicer than in a town! The weather has definitely been better than yesterday – just sweatshirts! Still windy but its been warm wind!