Friday 21 November 2014 Fradley bridge 90

Bit of an early start for us as the Metcheck weather forecast said heavy rain today, so as it was fine at 7 30 we set off and managed to get to Fradley, our target for the day before it started to drizzle very lightly for a short time. It tuned out the Weather Forecast for Birmingham was not the same as for Fradley and I set off early for nothing.

Marley Tiles have a huge yard beside the canal and not only do they have acres of tiles stacked up ready to dispatch around the country they also have a building which they are constantly re-tiling with different designs of tiles, I don’t know it its a show thing or for evaluating new designs.     

We were soon back on the river section of the T&M where this boat has sunk on its moorings at Wychnor, a sad sight as its bound to be someone's pride and joy.

At the top end of the section the River Trent continues on its way over the weir behind us, we came from the left of the photo. The Trent has only been with us flowing for about a hundred yards coming in just ahead under this bridge. Although the flowing section is short, the full length of the navigation between locks 11 and 12 are effectively a river and water will flow on the full length in flood conditions.  We have to turn sharp left across the flow just before the bridge, you can just make out the channel on the left.

Off the river and back on the canals we made our way back to Fradley Junction with no holdups this time. At the junction we turned left through the swing bridge and stopped to top the water up and delve down the weed hatch, the water is definitely getting colder. Once sorted we pushed on to moor for the night just through bridge 90 in Fradley.

For those that have followed for a while will know that I use Waterway Routes from http://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/wr/index.html on my I Pad that use to sit in a converted cereal box to keep the sun off. Now the summer is over I have upgraded to one of these housings from Aldi. I don’t think I would trust it in heavy rain but it could well save it from the odd splash.  As you can see this shot was taken while we were in Barton Turn Lock. It shows the facilities in the Mariana and also the company that sells diesel on the towpath side 3p cheaper.

Today’s journey 4.5 Hrs, 8.25 Miles, 8 Locks 1 Swing Bridge, 1 Junction, 1 River and 2 Canals.