13th April '13

As we left our moorings at about 10.30 this morning the sun was thinking about shining and it was quite warm. That was the highlight of the weather today. The wind increased to quite chilly and the sun gave up by lunchtime. Just after we moored it started to rain and it hasn't stopped intermittenet showers ever since.

Despite this we travelled on, the warm morning was lovely on the water. It's very quiet on the canals and we are seeing very little traffic. Naturally those we do meet are always on a narrow section but we take that as read really!

The season is quite late, there are still snowdrops out and some daffodils are not yet fully flowering. We have seen weeping willow just bursting out of bud and some forsythia is in bloom, as is some gorse, but it really depends on the shelter that these are getting. Stuff our in the open is still well behind what we would expect for the time of year.

We got to Fazeley without incident and as we turned at the junction a boat sprung out in front of us. It's actually from our marina but I'm not going to name it, as it progressed at funeral pace and although we don't want to speed, it's nice to move. We followed it until we got to the first set of locks. They opened the bottom gate by barging into it - no wonder so many of the gates need repairing and leak if this is common practice. Our attention was held by a boat being craned into the water - it was really high to avoid other boats waiting for repair and at one point went straight over us - not a sight I want to see that often! Anyway the process of locking meant that the boat in front moved ahead of us and luckily we didn't see them again until we passed them by while they had stopped for the night - hopefully we'll be away before they reach here tomorrow!

After the Glascote locks - there were only two of them, but they were quite deep, 13'8" climb, we stopped at Amington, mainly to get a paper so John has some puzzles to keep him happy and we can see what's on the TV. Unfortunately there was a chip shop there so our stop lenghted for us to eat lunch - very nice it was too. There was also a little Canal Craft shop, very quaint, and I was able to buy some postcards as I keep in touch with my Mum by sending her a card when I can saying where we are. We've bought her a waterways map, so she can plot our course. It's quite sweet really as she pins all the cards up on the wall around the map. I've been a lousy daughter over the years but am making up for it a bit now.

As we left Amington the sky was getting ominously heavy looking and the wind was increasing so we checked the maps and decided to get to Polesworth, where there were moorings and it's only a couple of miles from the start of the Atherton Locks. We will climb these tomorrow. 11 locks climbing 80' over the course of a mile. We've been on this bit of canal before in a hire boat but remember very little of it. We also came the other way in Perfect Harmony on her journey back from East Anglia, but canals always look different from the other direction.

We have decided to explore the canal down to Coventry, which we haven't done before. This means going past Hawkesbury Junction and then coming back to it after the Coventry bit is done since it's a dead end. However we are determined to do all the bits we can on this trip so this is our first taste of adventure!

We have also planned that we will be at Rugby next weekend so are meeing both sons and families for lunch at a pub on the canal, which will be really lovely. That however is on the Oxford and we still have a good few miles of the Coventry to travel yet.

The forecast is very good for tomorrow so here's hoping for some sunshine!

Heres the M42 as it crosses the Coventry just west of Tamworth. This is the road to Birmingham from our direction, so we use it a lot when going down to the SW.

This is after the boat had literally gone over our heads - scary stuff! Amazingly it had time to get unfastened and moored alongside us before we were able to get in the lock that was just a hundred yards ahead of us here. Nothing whatsoever due to the strange tactics of the boat ahead of us waiting for a boat to come out of the bottom lock. Never seen anything like it!

This is Pooley Hall, which we went past just before mooring. Apparently it's the oldest inhabited house in Warwickshire - so says our map guide. It's quite impressive with a wonderful mooring - wonder if they'd consider an offer?

These beautiful Newfoundlands were walking along the towpath and their owner stopped to chat as we were mooring. Jade, the black one is only 18 months old and still very puppyish, which is funny in something that large. Paddy wanted to eat them naturally but they were so good natured. For those who don't know, these are water dogs and can be trained to rescue drowning humans. We've seen them work at boat shows and they are really impressive.

It's amazing how people stop and chat as you moor - there we are trying to get everything sorted out, including putting the pram cover up - and they just natter on. John has no conception of how to get out of a conversation and so for the last two days I've been on the boat, made a cuppa and done all the sorting out of stuff before he's got inside. Bless.....

You can imagine what it's like at locks! I swear I'm going to sail off without him one day, just to see if he notices!