Second Breakfast at the Laughing Duck.

Monday 30th September 2019 at Fradley Junction.
The dawn sky was beautiful. Mist lingering over the water, partly shrouding a lady walking her dog on the towpath.

To make the most of the fine weather, we had an early beakfast and set off before 8:00am. Two things impressed us about Alrewas; one being how quiet and pretty it is, the other being the large number of excellent visitors' moorings for such a small place. Lincoln, which had very few visitors' moorings,  could learn something from that!

A typically attractive narrow bridge, after which M set off to walk the towpath to Fradley.

The towpath walking was a joy in the autumn sun; the hedgerows abounding with rose hips, trails of red briony, sloes and holly berries in profusion, already turning red..

A 100 yard stretch of ivy in the hedgerow was alive with thousands of honey bees flitting between the seed heads. M could hear their buzzing from fifty yards away.

This way to the "Laughing Duck" café at Fradley Junction - and second breakfast!

A welcome sight. The café is normally packed at weekends on sunny days; today, being out of season, it was quiet.

Second breakfast, always such a treat.

Meanwhile, Guy contented himself with a banana on board and "taking the rays".

We are not in a hurry to get back to our winter mooring, so we decided to stay here overnight. There are plemty of moorings opposite the café (very convenient!).

A pleasant walk up to the junction with the Coventry Canal and the next locks.

One of the reasons that Fradley is such a delight is that the road to it doesn't go anywhere; there is no through traffic. Originally, HS2 was scheduled to go very close to the Junction and the construction access road was designed to go through Fradley! The effect would have been worse than driving the M25 straight through the middle of Reigate High Street. Thankfully, a small amount of common sense has prevailed and the line will now pass half a mile to the west and the construction access road will no longer go straight through Fradley. However, beautiful secluded Woodend Lock, one mile away, will now be between the main line and a spur - so quiet and secluded no more! We can't help feeling that a bit more common sense would find a better (and much more economically rewarding) home for all those billions and billions of pounds.
Today: 2 miles, 4 locks and 1.9 hours.
Trip: 422 miles, 165 locks and 210.1 hours.