Hopwas to Alvecote.

Travelled 6 miles, worked 2 locks in a time of 3 hours 55 minutes.

Yesterday we stayed at Hopwas and caught the bus into Tamworth.

What a delight town it is.

Flowers for the Town in Bloom competition.

Castle and bandstand.

View from the Castle.

Sometimes you get pre-conceived ideas about a town, and mine were blown out of the water, because Tamworth is beautiful.

It was market day and it was very busy with people and plenty of stalls. So many times we have said we will pop into Tamworth and have never had the time, but I am so pleased we did because it was lovely and we will definitely go back.

So back to today.

We left Hopwas at 8.35 am after a disturbed night, with lads shouting rather loudly in the early hours as they walked past the boats. One of them shouted to his mate called Dan “Oh look this boats a shop, shall we knock on the boat”. I am thankful they did not because it was the early hours and they would have got the rough end of my tongue had they done so.

We stopped at Peels Wharf to take on water, empty both cassettes and get rid of rubbish. But before we could do so we had to pull alongside NB The Andrew, who was already taking on water. We had a nice chat with the gentleman on board, before he moved away and we took his place. We then had a boat come alongside us, they also wanted to use the facilities, it was very busy. The couple apparently read Hadar’s blog, unfortunately I did not get their names or the name of their boat, but if your reading this then “Hello, it was nice to meet you”.

 

At Fazeley Junction the homes are still not complete, it looks like a ghost town which is very sad.

 

Just heading beneath bridge 76 and there was a Canal and River Trust motor and hopper across the canal, fortunately there were a couple of C&RT guys walking along the towpath towards us, they asked if we were stuck because we slowed right down, Keith explained to them the problem and so they went to investigate and between them they managed to pull both craft into the bank to allow us and two other boats through.

Always smile when I read this sign as we head to Glascote locks.

There was a plastic cruiser ahead of us, but with boats coming down it did not take long before we were leaving the second of the pair.

We left the gate open for the boat heading down and sped on our way.

A Willow in need of a hair cut. As we got closer to Alvecote, we pulled in before the boat yard, I stepped off to walk up the towpath to see if there was any room opposite The Samuel Barlow, which there was, so we are now moored up just past the pub, with a fair few Historic boats already in there moorings for the gathering on the 24th and 25th August.

Just before the Samuel Barlow moored up were our friends John and Caroline on NB Vanyar. As we passed by they waved and Caroline said “I will put the kettle on”. So once moored up, we walked back to them to have a lovely natter and a coffee. It was fabulous to catch up with them and all their news.