Nottingham to Atherstone *7

Day seven.

We left our mooring along from the village of Alrewas and the sky was looking grey.


The wind was up and our 65foot of steel was drifting from bank to bank of the canal. Leigh has become expert at controlling it's erratic moves and glided into our first lock, lock 14, common lock, a single boat lock.


I closed the gates and gently wound the paddles of the top gates, every lock having it's unique speed of filling up, I've found it best to take them steady!


We were on route to Fradley Junction and soon to be leaving the Trent and Mersey canal. We were then on page 169 of the Collin's waterways guide 3 for those following us along.


We approached a small flight of locks, Hunt's lock, passing through bridge 50 straight into Keepers Lock with it's L shaped beams which I needed legs of an elephant to budge! Then we passed the BW office and fortunately finding a boat coming out towards us Junction Lock was in our favour.


As I filled the lock the air vents by my feet Whooshed! with force making me jump, I felt out but couldn't sense if they were pushing or pulling the air. At the top of the lock Leigh navigated the boat round the clusters of moored boats at this very busy junction.


We worked out the swing bridge,



a simple, push! and pulled up to fill up the water tank as we were coming to the end of our bottled tap water.


There was a wait for the tap so Delia came out to explore the new area and we admired the ducklings...


We were finally on the Coventry Canal lined with magical acorn trees with fields beyond full of rolls of hay...




We turn to page 61 of the guide and look forward to the wiggly canal towards Whittington.

Bridge 90 captures my imagination, as we approach, pass under and leave. I am captivated by the momentary secret place, the gentle passing of time, a beginning and an end.




Time eases past and Leigh and I are lost in the pace. We pass Huddlesford and a sign indicating our route at the private moorings of the Wyrley and Essington canal.


We tire as we reach Whittington and moor finding ourselves looking at a richly full plum tree! Out came the ladder and pole and we filled a bowl of juicy blue plums.

Leigh collected some Elderberries the other day so I thought I would give muffins a go... They were a treat! Even better than blueberry!



We explored Whittington village and some old paths and at the Bell Inn we found some bramley apples to fill our pockets and take home.

A day inbetween

We are moored at an old lock looking back to the pipe bridge. The lock has been removed but the paddle cogs remain. We discovered the village of Alerwas to be jammed packed of other boats yesterday eve and this was the first mooring opportunity we found.


We took the day out of journeying and settled down in the sun for the day.

Nottingham to Atherstone *6

Today on The Kite Experiment I present a day in pictures as we rest for the night at the village of Alrewas...































and a moment in poetry...


As we pass under bridges
I wonder of the memories felt
the spirit of a thought caught
in between the brick cracks.

A touch leads to crumble
trying to catch the wind in my hands.
The dirt under my finger nails
tells me all I need to know.

Nottingham to Atherstone *5

As Leigh and I went through the day in a cold-fueled delirium we each had spurts of energy followed by a deep fatigue. Leigh set out in the morning for some supplies and returned half hour later with a bag of milk, eggs, fire-lighters and bacon. By mid-day I had enough of grumbling and decided to leaf through the book, kindly given to us by mum called, Food from your garden by Readers Digest. There is a section on Food from the Country which details some foods found in the wilds. I decided to head along the towpath and see what free foods I could find.


There were bountiful blackberries and so I set to riffling through the bushes, being pricked and stung whilst I reached for the juciest berries under leaves.


Following the guide in the book, I discovered Elderberry and picked bunches of these to enjoy.


I had collected enough and wanted to get underway with making the produce into something lovely, so decided upon a crumble. I had read that Elderberry combined with blackberry is a good choice. So from the stalks of Elderberry I used a fork to remove the berries easily. I rinsed all the berries and piled them in a large glass oven-proof dish. We were pretty much out of butter so I made the crumble with olive oil and flour we've had for a while and I threw in some Whetgerm and Oats.

This is how it looked before putting in the oven, I added some walnuts on top...


And so for dinner we sat and ate our berry crumble with vanilla ice cream, mmmmm......


By early evening we were both feeling more chipper so decided upon a short jaunt to charge the batteries for light in the evening. We said farewell to our hedgerow-side mooring and I ran ahead to open up Dallow Lock ready for Leigh to steer her in.


It was a very narrow lock, for one boat at a time. Leigh did complain of a surge from the boat as I opened the paddles but I thought it was a nice little lock with easy gates to open, not at all threatening. It's funny how each lock has it's own characteristics.


We passed some gardens leading on to the canal edge, waved to the house owners and looked ahead...


We pass Shobnal Fields and under bridge 33


We approach a boatyard, with a sign neither of us recognise until we moor, of course, pump out...


We are in need of emptying the tank so tomorrow we will make enquiries.