The Shorts are Stashed

I finally had to admit defeat and put away the shorts and get back into the long jeans - it was just too bloody cold yesterday! Amazing to think 10 days ago we were hiding from the sun 'coz it was too hot!

Winter here we come, although there has been a bit of a change in our plans which I will blog about later.

Before we start on today's journey I have to mention the TV programme 'Mrs Biggs' that we have been watching ... it's basically about Ronnie Biggs' Mrs - as in, her side of the story.  In the last episode they arrived in Australia; the shots of the outback, albeit beautifully harsh, reminded us as to why we chose to cruise the canals rather than buy a camper in Oz and join the grey nomads.  Here (in the UK) the scenery changes constantly, plus passing numerous villages and towns etc.  Back in Oz there is just thousands of miles of well ... nothing!

Back to Wednesday - we left last night's mooring outside the Anchor Inn at Hartshill ...


Not only have the shorts been put away but the doggies had their coats on and were well covered by our coats.  Poor old Sam just shivers, he just hasn't got a good fur coat ... when we picked him up from the pound a few years ago he was virtually hairless!

Bombo wearing his hoodie

Took this pic for Elaine's brother, Trev, who has a Moggy Minor ... this one has front discs.

Sorry kiddies Santa doesn't live in the north pole he lives in an abandoned warehouse in Atherstone!

Onto the Atherstone flight, Elaine is perfecting opening the gates by hanging off one and opening the other by pushing with her foot !  She still won't jump from one gate to the other, what could possibly go wrong......... (he is trying to kill me ... Elaine :))

Hairy Pole ...

Bombo wants to be a figurehead ...

Lovely setting on the Atherstone flight all the locks were very easy to operate ...

Caxton waiting for the lock to be set ...

Mother watching Elaine do her stuff ...

We are running close to the West Coast Mainline again, I wonder when they will start painting the trains in their new First Group livery?

Yay we reach 100% on alternator charging only, without having the travel power on!  Now I know that it works, I have just got to tidy up the negative wiring ...

Actually as we were going down the Atherstone flight the wind dropped and it was very pleasant.  We stopped for the night at Polesworth .  We decided to light our first coal fire of  season ... wow - did it smoke!!!  It even set off the smoke detector in the cabin!  Mother thought we were back in wartime Luton with the smokescreens being lit!

It got a lot worse than this, we disappeared! 

Couldn't be bothered to cook so it was Indian takeaway last night!  There is a really good Indian in Polesworth, called India Garden, which sits on top of the Bulls Head and right next to Bridge No. 54 - perfect!

We are staying at Polesworth for a day so we will be able to get stocked up with some good food plus Mother is busting to go shopping ... she hasn't been to the shops for 10 days!

One last thing.....when we were at the top of the Atherstone flight we stopped at the service point which is opposite the lock mooring to do the usual.  Whilst  we were waiting for the water to fill (35 mins!) the queue went from no boats waiting to 3 boats waiting, so the question is ... do you push in or wait for the 3 boats to go?  We waited this time, but wonder what the correct etiquette is ... I wouldn't want to upset anyone!