We remembered that there is an Aldi Store in Atherstone and that was our destination and on the way we passed The Welsh Cheese Boat and pulled in alongside, unable to resist the temptation of some unusual flavoured cheddars. We didn’t get as far as Atherstone, but spent Wednesday night just beyond the attractive BW yard at Hartshill and enjoyed a lovely walk over the fields and into the village of Mancetter before returning via the towpath. Jacquie was feeling a bit sore by the time we got back as she had taken a tumble inside the boat whilst I was mooring up and had badly bruised her ribs on the left side.
On Thursday we moored near the top lock at Atherstone and with shopping completed we relaxed and waited for the arrival of Marilyn and Brian and they arrived bright and early on Friday morning. We had previously decided not to go down the locks, because of the water shortage and it was a good decision as there was a substantial queue of boats waiting to go down and a lot of historic old working boats coming up, on route to the festival at Shackerstone on The Ashby Canal; caught in the midst of them was our friend Jane and Michael on Moody Blues returning from a little holiday cruise. The weather was much better than expected and dress code for the day was shorts and after a short cruise we again moored near Hartshill Yard and repeated our Thursday walk.
Saturday had us turning onto the Northern Oxford Canal by The Greyhound pub and retracing our way back to Brinklow, where Marilyn, Brian and I, plus Duggie walked into the town for a drink at the smart Bulls Head pub, happily not so smart that they weren’t pleased to allow Dugs into the bar. Jacquie didn’t join us as she was really suffering from her fall, but the six hourly painkillers were helping to make the pain manageable.
After a wet start to the day we were back at The Greyhound in time for a late, but excellent Sunday Lunch and sat outside enjoying the sunshine and gongoozling the activities of all the other boats as they swung under the bridge.
By late morning on Monday we were back in the Coventry Basin and Brian being a bit of a petrol head, we all trooped of to the Motor Museum, the girls left us to visit the new and old cathedrals and we met up on SKYY to collect their luggage and a short walk later we saw them off on the number 48 bus to return them to Atherstone and their car.
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