Tuesday 29 July 2008

Through Leafy Glades.

8 Locks, 9 Miles, 1 Tunnel, Now moored at Rugeley.


Beautiful carved seat at Alrewas

After watering up at Alrewas we set off on what was going to be another hot day. The canal was very busy so every lock was going to be 1 up, 1 down and after we passed through Fradley Junction with the Coventry Canal it got worse with up to 4 boats queuing to go up but only the odd boat coming down so travel was pretty slow. In fact this stretch of the canal is narrow and with moored boats at various locations it does tend to restrict your speed.


Fradley Junction

Away from civilisation we passed through some wood's or forest's which gave us some lovely cool shading away from the relentless sun. The last three days have been so hot that it is unbelievable, the sudden change in weather. At Armitage we found the former Armitage tunnel which to all intense and purposes still is a tunnel except the roof is now a bridge for the A513. Originally a very narrow unlined bore through solid rock the top of the tunnel had to be removed due to mining subsidence. It certainly is narrow as we only had a few inches clearance on both sides.


Armitage Tunnel!

Since mooring up for the night we have had a short shower of rain and thunder and lightening has been rumbling around the district for a couple of hours but we haven't had the rain that we expected.

Harvesting! Its that time of year again!

1358 locks, 1946 miles, 44 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006

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