Down to King's Bromley Marina.

Monday 16th September, 2013 at King's Bromley Marina.
A lovely clear morning after yesterday's rain. We guided Ygal and Judith down to the junction and showed them the farm shop and how to use the water point.

Great Haywood was a zoo! Boats were doubled up on the water points but, as we didn't need water, we said farewell to our Israeli friends and set off south again.

This was now uncharted territory for us as previously we had turned right on to the Staffs and Worcs Canal at the junction. It was very pleasant cruising despite the odd shower. Rugely seemed to go on forever and the "Ideal Standard" works of toilet fame in Armitage did likewise.
Just west of Armitage, there used to be a tunnel, but it subsided so much that they decided to cut the top off. It's still very narrow though.

At Colwich lock, there was a traffic jam - of cows and calves going across the bridge.

They seemed to be very interested in our progress through the lock!

We arrived at King's Bromley Marina about tea-time. We had booked in for three nights and, although they are technically closed on a Monday, they had allocated us a berth between nb "Zeppelin" and a classic cargo vessel nb "Cepheus".

A taxi whisked us to Lichfield Trent Valley railway station for the train to Euston.
We are going home for an event that we booked months ago - a talk given at the Tallow Chandlers' Hall in the City on the 1922 and 1924 expeditions up Everest. The talk is to be given by Hugh Norton, the son of the leader of the 1924 expedition. Unmissable!
New batteries are living up to expectations, consistently still giving well over 12 volts at 85% capacity, while the old ones were only giving 10 volts at 95%. Hooray!
Today: 10 miles, 2 locks and 5.9 hours.
Trip: 404 miles, 311 locks and 336.2 hours.