Thursday 5th July 07

We were up and had the boat cleaned through by 10.15 and ready to leave the marina. We called into the butchers at Alrewas for some meat to take home and was back in the South Wales Valleys by 2pm we dropped Pam and Cliff of at their home and said our goodbyes for now any way I will see Pam at the swimming pool next week.
Back home it was still raining the garden looked overgrown and it was quite cold. Once inside we had to put the central heating on had a nice bath and Bernard cooked us a nice steak on the BBQ . A bit of catching up on the computer as the orange payg Internet connection on the boat was a bit hit and miss and sometimes no signal at all.

Wednesday 4th July 07

We left Hopwas at 8.45 in lovely sunshine by 9.15 it was waterproofs on again we carried on the Coventry canal to Fazeley then onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal we arrived at Fradley Jctn and was more than surprised there was no Que for the lock we went straight through on to the Trent and Mersey canal. The River section at Alrewas have been closed for a few days but other boaters told us it had opened so we made our way on to Alrewas. The river section was quite high but we went through OK as we have spent 4 years on the river Avon and 3 years on the river Severn it was quite mild to us. We arrived back at Barton Turns Marina by 2.30pm but today we have had quite a mixed bag of weather heavy rain wind and some sunshine.

Tuesday 3rd July 07

After reading the blogs last night I noted that Lyra was moored down the locks after lock two so I was sure to pass them somewhere on the flight. We left the top lock at 9.30 in the rain again. We had to fill the first 4 locks then it was one up one down much easier then we met up with Cath and Bob Lyra boat on their way up as I knew we would meet them I introduced myself to Cath on the towpath then to Bob on the boat who introduced me to Timmy their cat. It was lovely to meet someone who's blog I read regularly so now I have a face to a blog. Atherstone locks all done we carried on to the two Glascote locks after them we stopped for lunch. We carried on to Hopwas where we moored up for the night.

Monday 2nd July

Left Hartshill by 9.30 and on our way to the Atherstone top lock arrived at 10.30am moored up for the day. Went into Atherstone village for a look round the shops. bought some more supplies and a good tripod from Aldi's store for my D80. Got back to the boat had a good catch up on reading the blogs as the orange signal hasn't been very good so far. We are getting fish and chips for tea tonight from the local fish shop.

Sunday 1st July

We left Rose narrow boats at 8.45am carried on the north oxford up to Hawkesbury Jctn arriving there 12 noon. Went through the stop lock onto the Coventry canal and carried on to Hartshill bridge 30 the BW yard moored up at 3.30. Cliff cooked some lovely pork chops on the BBQ. and had a relaxing evening.

Saturday 28th June 07

When we woke this morning the rain was tamping down so we had breakfast and decided to stay put for a while to see if the raain would esase, by 11 30am it was a bit dryer so we decided to make a move we were only going about 20 min and the rain poured again so we stopped by bridge 30 just before Rose narrow boats where we stopped on the way down when the tree fell on the canal. We were moored up by 1.15 withe the rain still pouring down. We lit the fire so it was nice and cosy.

Friday 29th June 07

Left Braunston marina at 10am weather not to bad today we stopped at Rugby bridge 58 and went to Tesco to do some shopping. We stayed the night there. It was quite a nice. afternoon and evening weather wise