Wednesday 30th September 2020 at Hopwas.
Another lovely sunrise but rain is forecast later in the day, so we decided to make an early start.
We were just a couple of miles from the top of the Atherstone flight of 11 locks and arrived there by 8:00am, R had his breakfast before we left but M ate hers on the move (on MM, not while walking the towpath!).
When we arrived at the locks, M walked ahead at each lock to set them for MM. Almost all were against us but, because M set each lock before MM arrived, we hardly lost any time. When walking to the next lock, M would sometimes walk up on to one of the bridges to get a better look at the countryside. This is a very rural lock flight but, if you want to see the best views, you have to get off the towpath, where the view is often obscured by tall hedges and trees.
Lock 10 is one of M's favourites with its bench made from an old balance beam, sheltering under the trees.
During the day, we were in touch with Jenni, Ed and Will on "Rufford". They have been doing the Warwickshire Ring through Birmingham and have made incredible progress, so much so that they had decided to moor tonight at Hopwas. We were aiming to moor somewhere around Fazeley Junction and, as Hopwas is just three miles past the Junction, we decided to meet up with them.
We arrived at Hopwas about 2:30 just as the rain started. We moored up being careful to leave enough space for Rufford. They didn't arrive until three hours later, by which time the rain had really set in.
So, what with the rain and Covid social distancing, we only had a brief catch up before agreeing to have coffee on the towpath at 7:30 tomorrow morning when, hopefully, it will be dry.
Today: 14 miles, 13 locks and 7.3 hours.
Trip: 179 miles, 50 locks and 88.3 hours.
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