Well we made a bad decision yesterday by not continuing on to Wolseley Bridge. The trains normally stop running around 11 pm and then maybe the odd freight train during the night. Not last night, they were still every few minutes until gone midnight and then lots of freight trains over night, so not the best nights sleep. I think it was probably due to weekend engineering works on one of the adjoining routes so diverting everything, we didn’t see any traffic on the line that crosses the canal just above Colwich Lock. On the plus side we had two nice meals at the Clifford Arms with reasonable priced wine.
This morning as it was nice I decided to spend a bit of time removing some more rust bubbles off the roof before walking along and saying goodbye to to friends at the floating market.
It was gone 11am when we left meeting several boats as we made our way down to Colwich lock but we were still third in the queue when we arrived. Passing Bishton Hall it has a magnificent flowering Cherry just in front of it.
Our next stop was Taft Bridge to buy fresh eggs and to fill up with diesel, before stopping for lunch on the 48 hr visitor moorings between the Aqueduct and the Rugeley Bypass bridge. These where put in by the IWA, we weren’t stopping for 48 hrs, just for lunch. For some reason the police were poking about down by the aqueduct.
One of the regular sights on the canal coming into Rugeley is now gone. One of the houses has a spoof speed camera, he also had a small cruiser complete with blue light moored there, he has just sold the boat.
Tesco called and we stopped to top up supplies before continuing south. Not far from Tesco’s one of the bungalows on the offside has a garden full of ornaments.
The last couple of times we have come through Rugeley there has been a sunken Narrowboat, well its been refloated but some
toe rag has seen fit to kick the towpath side windows in.
The building work is pushing on behind The Ashtree Boat Club, I hope they enjoy boats moored outside their windows, or maybe the club has lost those moorings, its non towpath side.
Just through the next bridge we stopped to fill with water and I opened a tin of primer to touch up the treated rust spots, what happened? I hadn’t lifted the lid before the first drop of rain landed on my arm, then it chucked it down, so that is the end of the painting for today. Once the tank was full we pushed off, me steering under a brolly as it was far too warm to wear a coat. We decided to moor by the Plumb Pudding and eat there tonight, as soon as we moored up it stopped raining but we have had some horrendous thunder and lightning, its still rumbling out there now, but no more rain.
Today’s Journey 
6¾ miles, 1 lock in 3½ hours
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