What a fab day it’s been today, both weatherwise and travel wise. The sun has shone all day and it’s nearly been hot! We set off at a reasonable time today, well Ken left without me again! I was still in the bathroom.
We had about 5 miles to travel before we reached the bottom of Atherstone locks. At Bradley Green sanitary station we passed a boat which had passed us earlier so that was one less to follow up the locks.
There was one boat from the Ashby hire fleet waiting at the bottom when we got there and one boat already in the lock. It usually takes about 2 hours to do the 11 locks at Atherstone, today it took 2 hours and 15 minutes with help from CRT volunteers at the top 5 locks.
After ascending the flight we moored up and went in to town for the usual (potatoes, paper and a pint!). We started off at our usual pub, The Market Tavern but it seems to have gone down hill a bit since we were last there. The beer was not very good, it was flat and a bit too cold really. There were some rather strange people in there too.
We had one there and then went to The Red Lion which we have only been in once before we discovered the Market Tavern. It was ok in there apart from the heat. It is like a large greenhouse with the glass roofs over the courtyard and no blinds. I don’t know how they manage in there in the summer.
After doing what we did in the town we returned to the boat and travelled a further mile and a half to what we think is the nicest mooring spot on the whole Coventry Canal between Mancetter and Hartshill.
Last time we moored up here we were joined by a lot of other boats but so far tonight we are Billy No Mates. Also last time we moored up here we were broadsided in the morning by a chap trying to avoid another boat coming the other way! Why he couldn’t avoid us as well was beyond me as there is loads of room here.
Tomorrow we are going to get on to the Ashby Canal.
