Quiet at Great Haywood

Eh?

/blur

But it's true – OK, so there was a bit of a traffic jam when we arrived, with boats trying to get off the water point, Sanity Again coming through the bridge and boats both coming out of the junction and going into it. It was a bit like Fradley used to be on a Friday, when they turned a lot of OwnerShips boats round, but I could see, before I came through the T&M bridge, and before Sheila (who was on the junction bridge reporting on the traffic via the PMRs) could tell me, that there was a load of space on the towpath beyond the junction.

I held back to let some of the chaos sort itself, then eased through and onto one of those spaces.

For those who don't know GH, the challenge usually is to find a space to tie anywhere, with loads of liveaboards and leisure cruising boats competing for room. We were quite prepared to have to go round onto Tixall Wide to get a mooring.

As it is, we're well placed here, in the full sun when it's shining, which is most of the time today, and with useable phone signals on all three of the networks we use.

I'm not complaining, you understand, it's just been quite a while since we saw it like this. It's in the slack period between the end of the summer and the October half term, I suppose, but it's still odd.

We popped down to the shop by the Post Office before lunch for some supplies, and we raided the smart new Farm Shop after. Apart from that, we've been taking it quietly; the morning's boating was very pleasant, dry, not too windy mostly, but very chilly – I lit the fire as soon as we were on our way.

Tomorrow, we'll do a short day to Bridge 69, just before Rugeley. We may sit tight there for Friday, if the forecast for heavy rain proves to be correct, then on Saturday do the long day that involves a serious shopping stop in Rugeley and then carrying on to Kings Bromley afterwards.