We set off at 08:00 on a freezing cold but blue sky Friday morning in order to get through the 7 locks at Fradley Junction before the masses. Between Junction Lock and Keeper’s Lock we found a Canal & River Trust Service Area, or Welcome Centre as it said on the sign, which didn’t appear to be in our guidebook (J. M. Pearson & Son Ltd. Canal Companion ”Four Counties Ring” 30th Anniversary Edition).
If we had realised we could have made use of the showers while we were moored near The Swan pub.
Just before the village of Alrewas we went through Bagnall Lock. Bagnall was Hilary’s surname when she was married to her starter husband Richard.
Alrewas was a pretty little village with the Trent & Mersey Canal running through it. There were lots of dogs on the towpath and Vera ran amok playing with them until she cannoned into and knocked over a small child. She was ordered back to bed on the boat by mum.
A friend from way back when Steve was living in Isleworth, who now lives in Lichfield, came with his wife for a socially-distanced coffee on the stern. They then took us to The Plough at Huddlesfield on the nearby Coventry Canal for our first pub lunch since lockdown began. He used What 3 Words to find us (https://what3words.com).
What3words /// is a proprietary geocode system that is designed to identify any location with a resolution of about 3 metres (9.8 ft). What3words encodes geographic coordinates into three dictionary words; the encoding is permanently fixed.
We walked into the historic village to the Co-operative store. Some of the houses had dog water bowls outside and jars with dog treats in!
Saturday morning dawned cold and bright again as Steve walked with Vera along the canal towpath for her morning constitutional.
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