A bit overcast this morning and cooler. A few boats had gone in each direction before we set off a little before 10. Not all the embankment protection stop planks have been replaced, this one was a short way before Wheaton Aston.
One of the Wheaton Aston long term moorings has, what I think is a rather splendid tree.
We stopped at Turners to fill with diesel and wished we had come earlier, the pub do a cooked breakfast at weekends and the smell as we filed the diesel tank was tempting. We thin did a very brief stop at the services to dump the rubbish including yesterday carpet that jammed the prop. There was a short queue at Wheaton Aston Lock with a couple of boats ahead and more coming down . From here we chugged on towards Stretton Aqueduct and past Industrial Narrowboats which has a fine collections of craft. Some of the open work boats moored along the towpath have started to shoot water plants in the rainwater within their holds.
Further along the Shropshire Union canal the towpath is closed for quite a long way due to a short
length of towpath slippage which is marked by yet another barrier, without this second barrier I would never have spotted the slip, even then I passed before I could get a photo.
We moored on the 48 hr visitor moorings in the closed section for lunch, while we were mooring up I could see 3 paramedics talking with the moorers at the other end of the mooring before leaving along the closed towpath. After lunch the starboard side of the boat was washed, we did the port side the other evening,
About an hour later we set off again passing under the M54 motorway bridge where the graffiti artists have been very hard at work on the off side.
We stopped for water at the water point just prior to Napton Narrowboat base and then onto the stop lock at Autherley Junction, I think there was about 50mm rise in the lock as we went through. Here we turned right and slipped into the first mooring spot opposite Oxley Marine, just as the canoe club were packing up.
Minutes after mooring up it started raining and a short while ago we had the police running down the towpath, I couldn’t see who they were chasing but they came back without them.
9½ miles,1 lock in 5 hours
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