Friday 16th September

Note – do not moor under an oak tree when it’s a good year for acorns! The weather forecast was for heavy showers so we set off and hoped they wouldn’t materialize. We motored for an hour before we reached the first lock but when we got there we saw a queue of two boats already waiting for the lock and this was how it went all day :-( Usually we just had to wait while one boat came up but after a brief stop for lunch we, once again, joined a queue of two boats at a lock. At Gailey, the first lock, there is a charming canal shop in a “round house” which was once a toll clerk’s office. They have a great stock of bridge plates which we collect, and I came away with five, two of which we aren’t entitled to yet but will be by the end of the season! The canal ran alongside the M6 for most of the day – the constant traffic noise was quite unpleasant, I don’t how people live with it. At Park Gate Lock we came across a small motor cruiser with seven large rolls of loft insulation tied onto the bow – we weren’t sure what it was there for unless it was an odd type of buoyancy! We had a couple of short sharp showers in the afternoon but the weather wasn’t nearly as bad as the forecasters had predicted! Our goal for the day was Bridge 102 but when we got there it wasn’t very nice so we carried on for another half an hour until we moored up opposite a very expensive house – Richard wondered if a security man would pop out and say that we couldn’t moor there! Millie was off the boat pretty promptly and sat outside the galley window for ages staring into the grass – she triumphantly brought her quarry in while we were eating our dinner! Richard fell asleep in the chair so at 8.30 pm I said should we go to bed. He fell asleep again as soon as his head hit the pillow and I was zonked by 9.30 pm – unheard of for me.