Fradley Top Lock (Trent & Mersey Canal) – Friday 16th August

We woke up to rain – the first time for quite a while.  Fradley Junction today as we were meeting up with Fred and Lisa from Chyandour, who we had met in Middlewich.

It rained most of the morning and it wasn’t nice at all.  At the second lock we were first in the queue to go through but coming up there were seven boats waiting and we past more on their way up!

We passed through Rugeley and onto to the narrows at Armitage where I had to go ahead to make sure there was nothing coming the other way.

The narrows at Armitage

 Before we knew where we were the sun had come out and we were passing King’s Bromley Marina where we had overwintered in 2011/12.

As we approached Fradley we knew that it would be busy so Richard pulled over at the end of the moored boats and I wandered down to see what the mooring situation was.  I came across a volunteer lock-keeper who told me not to bother going any further as it was pretty chock-a-block.

Our mooring at Fradley

We arranged to meet Fred and Lisa in the Swan at 5pm and we didn’t leave until well gone 9pm.  I had planned on chilli for dinner which I had already cooked, but we were enjoying the company too much to go back to the boat so ended up with scampi and chips in a basket – I didn’t know you could still get basket meals!  It was an extremely enjoyable and alcoholic evening – hic!  Can’t wait to catch up with them again another time J

 

Great Haywood Junction to Fradley Top Lock

12.42 miles
3 locks