Fradley to Rugeley.

Hi Folks.

Autumn has definitely taken hold, with the chilly mornings, leaves falling and the trees transforming their colours.
Having been awake early, the usual cuppa was drunk in bed under a very cosy duvet, before getting up and taking Paddy out for his first walk of the day.

The early sunshine was doing its best to warm the air, but Paddy and I were not bothered by the chill.

At 11 years of age and a poorly boy, he does a great impression of being a puppy at times and this morning was one of those times, when he was running up and down the towpath like a 2 year old.

Back on board, it was breakfast time for all of us.
We left the over night mooring and as I walked to Fradley Junction to open the swing bridge, Keith moved the boat. We turned at the junction at 8.50 am, it was extremely quiet. The volunteer lock keepers were getting ready for their day as we headed to the first lock. By the time we had worked through the second lock Shade House, the lock keeper had just made it up to the lock, so he missed helping us.

Onward to Woodend Lock with the sun shining on the bridge. We met another volunteer, who kindly worked the lock for us. The volunteer was there with her clip board taking boat names and numbers in a project to work out how much each canal is used. My understand is it is meant to help them work out how much water is needed to keep the boats moving.

As we stood nattering to the volunteer a boat we know well approached, it was Andrea and Andrew on Dove. It is always lovely to see them.

Our journey was pretty uneventful, we headed through Armitage, past the toilet factory Armitage Shanks.

I was in and out of the cabin cooking Liver and Onions for dinner, which then sat in the oven making us both very hungry with the smell.

We arrived in Rugeley and stopped brieftly at Tan Yard Bridge No.66, so I could nip into Tesco to buy the UHT milk which Aldi do not do.

We then carried on to just around the corner from Bridge No.67 where we have moored for the night. We donned our rucksacks and set off to do a proper food shop at Aldi after some lunch.
Aldi does do some lovely things, which we would not ordinarily buy, so it is worth the trip. We did not need a lot, as we do not seem to eat as much when we are on the move.