Autherley.

After a dull wet uneventful weekend we left for Autherley on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. This is one of the so-called narrows hereabouts, where two boats cannot  easily pass one another. So I walked ahead to warn oncoming boats of our approach. Luckily there were two just waiting to enter under the bridge, so they kindly  waited there for us to emerge. Then there was a row of sodden fishermen using long poles and they weren’t happy because of the all the boat movements in both directions and people walking the towpath. This meant they had to keep withdrawing their rods for everyone to pass. One of them did not, and as I was at the front of Oakfield I called to him as we didn’t want to damage his expensive pole, which caused much verbal grumpiness! At Autherley Junction we turned right through the stop-lock which raises your boat up six inches onto the Shropshire Union Canal. We moored up before Bridge 2 so that we could stock up on food from the nearby Morrison’s.

What a change from last week when we were cruising along with the pussy-willow fluff drifting over us in the warm air and falling on the canal like snow. So we are doing the ‘okee-koakee’ with the summer and winter clobber. Shorts on, shorts off, shake them all about. Sunny for a bit, then turning grey and being pelted with wind and rain alternately! It can’t last much longer like this, can it?