Two Magna (each), a Beautiful Garden and a Lover of the Bard.

Thursday 28th June 2018 at Gailey
Awoke to another lovely morning with the hotel staff cleaning up after the night before., although the Prom goers had been very well behaved (if a tad exuberant!).

Set off about 9:00am and almost immediately passed under the M6 motorway (horrid thing!).

 

However, rural tranquility was soon restored: it's hard to believe that this was just yards past the motorway. What a contrast!

At the next lock, no less than seven C&RT chaps were hard at work, installing a fence to prevent the careless and unwary (ie: bloomin' stupid) falling down from the bank.

 As the canal was opened in 1772, people have survived for 246 years without needing a fence - proving, once again, that the illiterate boat people were a lot brighter than the current products of our wonderful education system.
There were mutterings from the foreman about "bloody stupid fences being needed - when routine maintenance gets neglected".
Happiness is a Magnum on a hot day! At Penkridge lock, there is a little shop a few yards from the canal and M ran to it as the lock was filling to grab a Magnum each. Bliss!

We like this all action windmill. As the wind blew, the man chopped wood.

M was, as ever, tempted to follow this path as it led off into the distance.

R bringing MM into Rodbaston lock next to the M6. M hoped to spot some 'Eddies' as they passed but was sadly disappointed.

We moored for the day at Gailey at one of our special places; we moored here on our very first night together on a narrow boat on nb "Emma" in 2010.

We walked back to the Round House next to Gailey lock, the last remaining one of its kind in the country. The ground floor is a shop run by two ladies, Eileen and her daughter Karen; both are delightful. They live above the shop in the Round House. The bridge on the right carries what was once Watling Street.

Karen has created an incredible garden outside entirely from plants in pots as the soil underneath is contaminated.

We sat and chatted for a long time with Karen while consuming another Magnum. Karen very kindly showed M all around her beautiful garden and we then discovered that she is very keen on Shakespeare and spent even longer talking about the Bard and Elizabethan times.
A delightful end to a lovely day.
Today: 6 miles 10 locks and 4.2 hours.
Trip: 38 miles, 21 locks and 18.8 hours.