About 45 minutes later, we arrived at the top of the Atherstone locks. We had to turn the first one, then crossed with a boat, and we met boats regularly as we went down. It's a rather pretty flight, especially in the dappled sunshine.
At lock 6, there's a working side pond (the only one in the flight, and one of only a handfull on the network) so I feel duty bound to use it. The lady from a boat which was just setting off from the pound above hadn't realised it was there, but seemed quite interested.
Further down the flight we met several old working boats who'd been at last weekend's gathering at Alvecote, and were on their way to next weekend's Shakerstone Festival. Among them were Darley, and Lamprey, with Sarah Edgson working the locks.
We continued through Polesworth, and passed Alan and Cath Fincher on Sickle. The building in the background is Pooley Hall, which used to be the home of Edwin Starr.
There were plenty of old boats still at Alvecote.
At the two Glascote Locks, we swapped with Telemachus, a boat owned by Nick Norman, a regular on the Canal World Forum. Neither of us realised until it was too late!
At Fazeley Junction we bore right, staying on the Coventry Canal (although this bit was actually built by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company). We stopped at Peel's Wharf to top up the water tank, and started a wash load. As it was still early, we continued to Hopwas, mooring at around 3.30pm. We then had a bit of a boat cleaning session, washing the roof and the towpath side of the boat. We've also been up to one of the two pubs just through the bridge for a drink in the sunshine. There's not much doubt about which way to point the tv ariel tonight: this is the view from the dinette window.
15 miles, 13 locks. (72 miles, 37 locks)
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