So it’s Year 2 for me.

Before posting my 12 months on post last night I had a nightmare with the laptop and thought it would be necessary to buy a new one, but I resolved it in the end, I am posting the details in case it helps anyone else.

It’s a Lenovo G500 and it was frozen on the Splash Screen (black background with’ Lenovo’), thats the initial screen before it boots up. I looked at the Lenovo forums and the ‘experts’ views, they all said roughly the same thing, unplug everything, do a powerflee (press and hold the power button for 30 secs 3 or 4 times) then reboot pressing the fn key and f2 (some said f9, some f10), if that didn’t work take it to a service centre, it didn’t work. I looked at 20 or so pages and tried their soloution several times. In the end on a non-Lenovo site someone mentioned removing the hard drive and see what happens, so I did, it said ‘media not found’, I ignored that and tried a reboot pressing fn and f2 to get into the Bios, that worked, hurrah, pressed fn and f9 to reset the Bios, pressed fn and f10 to save, shut down, refixed hard drive, all working, 1st boot up took about 15mins though, but as a bonus it is now booting quicker than before, so I must have somehow got a corrupted Bios.

Ok so back to boating matters, I woke the morning with a spring in my step, amazed I was into year two, the weather was dry so at 10am I cast off, what a lovely day, dull but not cold, no wind, no rain and it’s mid December!

I cruised until 2:30pm mooring at Wheaton Aston on the Shropshire Union canal, I did not see any other boats moving at all, I took loads of pictures but here are some of the better ones!

Leaving my mooring behind and passing the Fox and Anchor which looked a very nice pub with a nice resturant, I should imagine it gets very busy especially in the summer, there was mooring all along the front and plenty of outside seating.

Just another unique boat

I next ran into a small fishing contest with only 5 anglers, they said because Otherton lock had been closed it had been very quiet and were a bit miffed to hear the lock was now open, but they all spoke and were friendly.

I then passed benath the M54 for the 1st time today.

Shortly after the motorway appear the narrows known as Pendeford Rockin' evidently it was what the old boatmen called it, and it is where Brindley's navvies hit a solid belt of sandstone, so they kept it narrow with a couple of passing places, like you would find on a single track road.

The view on approach, it's about 1/2 mile and you can't see the end
which is why you need passing places.

One of the passing places

Passing beneath a road bridge you can see the solid stone clearly.

Almost out!

Having safely negotiated that the next thing was Autherley Junction, the turn into the 'Shroppie' cuts back a bit so it takes a bit of boat control to get round and I was happy to do it without incident.

Immediately after the Junction bridge is a 'stop lock', you find these locks at changes of waterways, generally quite shallow, this one was just 6 inches, the idea is to protect the different canals water supplies, as I am going down the 'Shroppie' it prevents that from stealing all the water from the Staffs and Worcs canal.

Entering the stop lock, ahead are all the Napton Narrowboats hire boats.

Bridge 3 another good example of a 'turnover bridge', this allowed the horses to change sides where the towpath changed without untying the boat.

Passing Wolverhampton Boat club and below the footbridge was a now dilapidated gate intended to close the canal if necessary.

I just liked the name

I have looped around now so pass beneath the M54 again.

Avenue Bridge (10) was lovely, it leads to Chillington Hall and the owner would have made the canal owners erect a bridge he thought befitting of his estate if they wanted to pass through his land. My pictures don't do it justice, it swept around majestically with ornate balustrading atop.

Approaching

And looking back.

Next came Brewood with it's church spire standing out, it was very busy, probably because of the popular pub nearby, the Bridge Inn, so I didn't stop here.

Another couple of very different but interesting boats.

I bet the owner is more friendly than the flag suggests.

The owner said this dinky one was about to get a facelift.

The Stretton Aqueduct passing over the A5 which covers about 180miles from London to Holyhead, I wonder how many times I have past over or under this road.

Okay so yesterday I mentioned Kingfishers, this one teased me flitting ahead of the boat every time I got close, not the best picture I grant you, but after 5 attempts it's the best I was able to get!

My second and last lock of the day Wheaton Aston Lock, 7ft deep.

I was then happy to see Sue and Vic's boat (N.b. No Problem ) no sign of them but hopefully I will bump into them, Sue's blog is probably the most informative blog I've seen, the effort she has put into it with links and information is amazing, take a look, just click on the No Problem link in the brackets.

No Problem.

 Tonights mooring.







Wow a long post, but it was a long cruise, by my standards.

Totals today 10.5 miles : 2 locks