Sunday 27th September; Perdiswell Park to Offerton Bottom Lock
On another gloriously sunny morning we were once again sitting in deep shade on our mooring. Around 9, men in warm clothing and lugging immense amounts of kit started coming by – it was a fishing match, and the first peg was by the reeds not far behind us.
We suspected we were moored on another, but we reckoned they would have allocated the pegs last night, so we didn’t care, and anyway we needed some shopping. I took Meg to the park for some vigorous ball-playing before I went – Sainsbury’s doesn’t open until 10 on a Sunday. It looked very busy, with a long queue. I went to the cash machine first, as we only had coppers left after buying the gas bottle yesterday.
I waited in the socially-distanced queue, enjoying being warm in the sun and out of the wind. It moved quickly, the shop was well organised and I even got to be first at a newly-opened till, so it was fairly painless. After I’d unpacked and sanitised/quarantined the shopping it was late morning, so we had a cup of tea and read the paper before lunch. A pair of swans was preening in the sunshine by the bridge. Let’s hope they don’t decide to go down Bilford locks or they’ll end up in a fight.
When we left at about 2, the fishing match was continuing in full swing, the participants still warmly wrapped up in the shade. But out in the middle of the canal the sun was glorious, and we soon warmed up. At the first lock, Blackpole, a lovely crew waiting at the top opened up for us, and at the second, Tolladine, we picked a small bowlful of late blackberries. Luckily no-one else was waiting for the lock.
We didn’t fancy doing another 6 locks, and the sunny towpath was beckoning. So we moored between the bottom Offerton lock and bridge 22a. It was not the quietest of moorings, but we hoped the road would quieten down later. The sliding hatch was the next bit of paintwork to receive Dave’s attention, while I washed the starboard side, discovering sticky residue from masking tape along the top red coachline. It turns out that the tape from Halfords is just too sticky and you need to remove it as soon as the paint has dried, unlike that from Wickes which is a lot more forgiving. I attacked the sticky bits with white spirit and elbow grease. Then I sat out on the towpath with a cup of tea until the sun dipped behind a tree – will this be for the last time this year? It got cold very quickly and we lit the fire again.
1½ miles, 2 locks
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