Having spent Saturday in Polesworth, and had our fish and chips, it's time to move a little further down the canal.
Sunday 31st March, woke to thick ice on the canal and waited for a bit of a thore before moving off, and as several boats had been through and broken the ice the melt was well under way when we pulled away from the mooring.

Our aim for today is to do the elevan locks of the Atherstone flight and call in at the services at the top. We set off at 10.30 leaving the small town behind us, with the sound of highly tuned motocycle engines ringing in our ears, which we later found out to be a scramble circuit. Which by the look of all the vehicles and bikes it was a well attended meeting with bikes flying over jumps and around the hilly track.

The wind was still icey as we made our way along and it wasnt long before we got to the first of the locks ready to start our climb up into the town. Sally did the first two for a change, but with her having to walk around each lock to open and shut the gates it was decided that I (the more agile) would do the rest. All of the locking went smoothly with a few being set for us as other boats came down the flight and we soon reached the top, pulling over for the services.
As the day was still young we figured we would continue on to just before Nuneaton and what is known as Mount Jud.

I guess we put in an extra hour to get to our upgraded mooring and by now the temperature had warmed up a bit, but still not shorts and tee shirt weather. As I said before it's hard to believe that last year we were enjoying a heat wave, perhaps because it is slow coming this year we will have a hot summer. After a good meal we sat down to play Scrabble (I cant help winning, now can I), evenutally playing it on the I Pad and against the computor till well after midnight. So far from 8 game we are in the lead 6 to 2.

Monday the 1st April, No ice this morning and it stayed above freezing all night, but it's still cold enough that we should wrap up well. As we set off the farmer was ploughing the field oposite us, and one poor chap on his boat went bye, he looked near death with cold, maybe he planned for a warm easter break.

Although there are buds on some of the trees, they are staying tightly closed at the moment waiting for some warmer weather before bursting open and filling the trees with green. The last time we passed this spot it was all in leaf and a dark part of the canal.
Passing through Nuneaton the canal seemed to be a dumping ground for their rubbish and hundreds of plastic bottles had built up in the windy corners, along with all manner of other waste.

Now for the Non Science bit or should I say the nonsense bit, as we approached bridge 17 we met another boat comming the other way and had to stop and back off to let her through. This put us in the bushes and I did not notice the branches as the pulled off our centre rope. The young lady steering the other boat called out that she could not find the horn with her big gloves on and I replied "I cant find the horn either" to which Sally called me a tart. Anyway the centre rope found my prop and immediatly cut off the engine so I had to pull it through the bridge and moor while I untangled the prop. (that will teach me to be rude, wont it).
Ahead was Hawksbury Junction, and on arrival found a nice mooring and pulled over for the night. My turn to cook tea, and I made a nice full pan of hash, for which we can have the rest tomorrow.