We were all made to feel very welcome by the people of Burton-upon-Trent at the recent floating market. There were ten boats trading at Shobnall Fields, and I think it’s fair to say we all had a successful weekend. The weather was kind to us with only a little drizzle on the Sunday. On Saturday evening we had a boaters get together around a few BBQs over on the field side of our trading area, it also happened to be our 23rd wedding anniversary. It was great to meet up with some familiar faces again and also meet a few new people and hope to see more of them in our travels.
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| The floating market, we're on the first on the right |
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| Open and ready to start selling |
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| James at work |
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| Not everyone had arrived when I took this |
Dudley seemed to really enjoy himself and was chief ‘Meeter and Greeter’. We were the end boat on the towpath side so he was kept very busy. He was even recognised when I took him out for an evening walk to Horninglow, as I was passing someone walking with their dog he asked him if my dog was Dudley, the guy had seen us up at the market the previous day.
One lady who bought a pen was so pleased with it she came back the next day with a couple of lovely souvenirs of Burton for us.
Our last trading day was Bank Holiday Monday but I think we all stayed around recovering on the Tuesday. We had sold quite a bit of our stock so James will now be busy getting prepared for the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival which we are booked into for the middle of June. We will slowly be making our way up there, let’s hope we get some nice weather.
We left Burton-upon-Trent on Wednesday and made our way to Alrewas, our plan was to top up with water and moor a little further on near the cemetery. We went through the river section and James dropped me off at the lock landing of Alrewas lock, I got the lock ready and James set off to enter, he seemed to be having a little difficulty and when eventually entered the lock said something was round the prop and he was hardly moving. So we went up the lock, off the river, where luckily enough there was a free mooring just after the lock landing. It was my turn down the weed hatch where I retrieved some thick brightly coloured rope, along with a couple of plastic bags and a bit of weed. It was a nice spot and as we weren't desperate for water so stayed put.
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| On the Rover Trent |
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| Heron fishing in the weir |
On Thursday the weather was quite nice so James was busy with his lathe whilst I did a bit of Spring cleaning and went for a stroll along the river with Dudley.
Yesterday once the worst of the rain had passed we set off through Alrewas and onto Fradley where there were three volunteers helping at the locks, which was much appreciated. It was then on through Armitage where James told me we had enough pictures of the loos so I didn’t take one this time. At the old tunnel I got off with Dudley to check the way was clear to see a boat coming through in the opposite direction just sounding his horn as he came through, I can totally understand if he was on his own, but there were three people sat on the front deck. There are signs both sides which say to send a crew member to check if its clear, I wonder if anyone else actually does this.
We arrived at Rugeley where the visitor moorings looked quite busy so tagged on the end as a visit to Tesco was needed.
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| Moored at Rugeley |
18 miles and 15 locks
Total 210 miles and 188 locks
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