A break in the weather

Yesterday we stayed put, the rain was horizontal at times, John was measuring the weather on the mast that we could/could not see from the porthole.  Most of the morning we could hardly see any of the mast, occasionally you could see a bit more, sometimes none of it, and it was only a couple of fields away.  About 2:30 the sun came out and as the sky looked to have cleared for a while, we (well John) thought we should move on a bit.  I had my doubts, but we set off heading for Whittington, we were being chased by a big black cloud after a while, which caught us before we got to Whittington, by the time we moored it was throwing it down and blowing a gale again.  We moored right at the point of the stone marking the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal changing to the Coventry Canal.

This morning it was raining when we got up but did brighten up after a while, we set off for Fradley Junction, there were a few boats on the move, obviously making the most of a break in the rain.  When we came through Huddlesford last year there was a boat gathering and we only just managed to squeeze through, today there were hardly any.  We came past the new Kings Orchard Marina, it does look like some work has been undertaken over the winter but not a lot, I think it is due to open during 2012.  At Streethay we were alongside the A38 which looked busy, but it was definitely noisy and we were glad when we parted company a bit further on.  We have managed to moor up just before the water point at Fradley junction and with a bit of extra hosepipe we can fill up without moving!  We have been for a walk around the Fradley Pool Nature Reserve/Reservoir. The reservoir site has been classified as a Site of Biological Importance for the floral composition of the woodland and lake, there are tree sculptures, and a great bird hide that is thatched, there are loads of different water birds nesting around the reservoir.

John's weather mast

Plaque of the joining of the canals

First flowering Wisteria of the year

BW Van from 1954

The thatched hide on the reservoir

Sculptures around the reservoir

Fradley 

Squirrel at the side of our mooring

We have not yet ventured into the Mucky Duck (For the benefit of Karen & Pip) but I am sure we will be doing at some point over the next few days.


Yesterday 2.5 miles
Today 5.5 miles no locks