#atherstonelocks

The first day of a four day holiday and the first priority is to stop at the services to top up with water and get rid of rubbish as we are entering a section of the canal where there is very little in the way of CRT service points!

It looks like being a sunny and warm day and the pause at the top of the locks is very pleasant. The volunteer lock keepers at Atherstone clearly take a pride in their patch and the garden areas and towpath areas are very tidy!

Like Hillmorton, this flight is pretty busy although we are the first boat to travel down the flight from the top and the Volly Lockies do the first lock and send me on to lock number two where we meet our first boat coming up - A hire boat with a family of 8 people aboard so they were very helpful with operating that lock for me and we had plenty of time to chat as the lock filled - always a bonus of being the lock monkey!

The first five locks are shady thanks to the trees lining the canal:

When we drew level with the railway I hop off the boat and make a rush round to the Co-Op to buy milk to keep us supplied with cups of the tea during the day!

The next 6 locks are more open it we are fortunate in meeting boats coming the other way at almost every lock which helps water efficiency and provides an opportunity to chat - it is absolutely amazing how much you can learn about someone in the 10-15 minutes it takes to fill/empty the lock and allow the boats to change places!

I took the opportunity to walk between each lock as they are so close together and it is a joy to see the flowers blooming in the hedgerows, there were plenty of dog roses, and ideal flower to celebrate the start of June.

Once we leave the lock flight behind it is only a couple of hours cruising before we reach Polesworth. We are expecting rain so stop for lunch, the rain doesn’t materialise but we decide to stay put for the remainder of the day.

This was our travels today: