I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Oreo we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

Stoney Step Bridge 84 (Trent & Mersey Canal / Coventry Canal) – Monday 15th August

I got up this morning ready to say goodbye to Aaron, Michelle and Trinity.  We have had a lovely week with them and I’m going to miss them – when they eventually go!!  They have had a change of plan as Aaron is having problems with the boat’s batteries and they have decided to go back to Barby Moorings to get it sorted out.  So we will still have the pleasure of their company for another couple of days :-)

It’s only a hop, skip and 4 locks to Fradley services.  It was very much one in and the bottom and then one in at the top – lock that is!  We pulled over at the services but the elsan point was blocked so Richard wasn’t able to dump what he needed to dump!  However, I went to the café and got a couple of bacon sandwiches to take away – I’d been promising myself a bacon sarnie for ages!



Of course our stop allowed another boat to go in front of us who were also going down to Coventry and then a bright red boat came down the canal and also turned so there were two boats between us and Days Away.



We passed working boat Starling and her butty, Ethel.  Starling is an ex Cowburn & Cowpar motor-boat, built at Yarwoods in the thirties. Ethel is a Yarwoods built "Station Boat", which means that it was built for one of the railway companies, in this case, the L.M.S. Ethel was built as a horse drawn boat and has never had an engine fitted. 



It was so nice not to have any locks to do and to enjoy the countryside.  The sun was shining and it was quite hot.  I got a text from Aaron to say that they had stopped – which sounded like a good idea.  It was a lovely spot and we sat out and read before having a lovely BBQ.  For once it was a nice evening and I didn’t get cold feet!
  


5.49 miles
6 locks
1 swing bridge

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