A Duckling Rescue More Than Once!

Wednesday 6th July, 2016 in Alrewas.
There is a great deal of confusion as to how to pronounce Alrewas. We gave up trying to work it out, so christened it "Walrus" instead.
R washed MM's side nearest the trees. At least he got some of the sticky lime tree stuff off.
It was a bright morning, so we thought that we would go for a stroll around Burton upon Trent. The Town Hall is a handsome building, but the clock faces in the tower couldn't agree on the correct time!

M wanted to get a "few bits" but there were no food shops in the middle of town. The maps showed that they were all on the outskirts. We did find an excellent marina and chandlery but their café was closed for renovations - so we had to set off without second breakfast. Bother.

The passage through Burton was accompanied by the aroma of yeast, malt and hops. There wasn't time to do the renowned Bass Museum tour on this occasion, we will save that for another time.
However, Marston's brewery wanted to remind us to come back.

The locks on this section are fascinating - small, shallow and tucked beneath narrow bridges. A welcome change from the wide and deep locks we have been doing for the last couple of weeks.

At Barton Turn Lock there was a "duckling drama". Six very small ducklings got swept down the bywash (that takes the excess water past the lock). Normally, this would not be a problem as they would just be spat out at the bottom and go back into the canal. In this case, the bywash had a middle section with brick sides a foot high and an outlet that was under water. The ducklings were trapped in this section and couldn't get out. Lots of panic-stricken quacking from Mum and cheeping from chicks! Luckily, the lady from the pub beside the lock produced a fishing net and she managed to start catching the ducklings and putting them back on the towpath. She had obviously done this before!

Problem was, that as fast as we caught them and put them on the towpath, they ran back to their siblings in the bywash! Eventually we managed to get them all out and reunited with their relieved Mum, who was waiting below the lock.

R ended up running down the towpath with the last duckling in the net trying to catch up with the mother duck as she led the other five ducklings away from the lock as fast as possible!
Just beyond the lock, the C&RT were doing dredging, which delayed us for a few minutes.

A little further on, a shore-based digger was emptying the very smelly black sludge from a full barge. In the past, the very rich dredgings were put on to the side of the canal - but now the dredgings have to be disposed of at a licensed site (at significant cost) as they might be contaminated. What bureaucratic nonsense...

At Alrewas, nearly all the moorings were full but we eventually found one space free squeezed between a winding hole and the lock moorings. We took an evening stroll around the village, which turned out to be extremely pleasant and very quiet.
Today: 7 miles, 5 locks and 3.9 hours.
Trip: 184 miles, 113 locks and 134.9 hours.