Helpful C&RT Volunteers.

Monday 27th May 2019 in Atherstone.
The weather forecast showed a dry day, so we made an early start. (We later discovered the forecast lied!). M was happy to hear the first yellowhammer of the summer with its familiar trill sounding like "a little bit of bread and no che-e-e-ese".
Alvecote Marina is home to many historic narrowboats and the well known "Samuel Barlow" pub, named after one of the old canal working boat companies.
Some of the historic boats are in good repair, some are not so good, like the nb "Jaguar" in the foreground.

At Polesworth, the site of a former coal mine has been reclaimed by nature and turned into a wooded country park with many inviting paths through the trees. We had moored here before and, once again, were struck by the transformation from a place that typified the horrendous "dark satanic mills" of the past into a place of beauty and serenity. What a contrast!

We decided to take a short walk leaving MM behind, viewed through the trees.

The path went up and up and up what had clearly been a very large spoil heap until we neared the summit and the real object of our walk.

We had walked up here some years ago and found this huge golden pillar on top of the mound but, at the time, all we could find out was that its cross-section was a leaf, which did not leave us any the wiser. Since then a board has been erected to explain the purpose and symbolism of the monolith.

The board explains that the monolith represents, among other things, the sunlight escaping from the trees that formed the coal millenia ago and the shafts that carried the miners down and the coal up from below the earth, as well as the birch leaves that have recolonised this Pooley Park. For once, the explanation of a seemingly random work of art made a lot of sense. Almost on cue, the sun came out and lit up the monolith in all its glory. It is certainly an impressive sight.

Close-up you can see that it is made up of hundreds of layers like the stratification of the earth beneath our feet.

Back on board, we cruised to the bottom of the eleven locks of the Atherstone flight. To our delight, two C&RT volunteers were there to help us through the bottom lock.

M went up to help them with the lock and heard one of them remark that he had left his lunch at the C&RT "office" beside the top lock, about two miles and eleven locks away, and that he could really do with a cuppa. At this point, as we came out of the lock, it started to rain so M invited the two volunteers aboard for a cup of tea and a biscuit and to get out of the rain. Their names were Jed and Martin and they gratefully accepted.

Our intention had been only to do the first four locks today, but Jed and Martin decided that it was time to start back up to the top of the flight (Jed's sandwiches were calling!) and so they very kindly helped us through all eleven locks - even though the rain returned with a will a few times on the way up. We did the flight in two and a half hours with occasional pauses to shelter from the worst of the rain.
Finally, we arrived at the top lock and to Jed's relief, he was able to retrieve his lunch at last (M had been ribbing him that the other volunteers might have already eaten his sandwiches!).

We said cheerio to Jed and Martin, thanked them and the other C&RT volunteers on duty for their help, and managed to find a mooring between two moored boats not far above the locks that just fitted MM with about three feet to spare.

Then, would you believe it, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Typical!
Today: 8 miles, 11 locks and 4.7 hours.
Trip: 42 miles, 21 locks and 18.8 hours.