As we arrived, the lock keeper was running water through the top paddles whilst waiting for a boat to enter the lock from below. It turned out that last night a boat had gone through in the dark at 10 o'clock and had left a paddle up. The resuilt was that one of the longer pounds had emptied leaving some boats at a strange angle on the mud. The lock keeper was not pleased at being woken up at half past one in the morning.
We continued down the flight until bridge 43 where we moored to walk into the town to do some shopping. The long main street has quite a collection of small shops, together with a couple of supermarkets (Co-op and Aldi). Whilst most of the shops were fairly down-market, the people shopping indicated quite a mixture - several sandwich and lunch shops suggested that there must be a number of office workers close by.
After returning to the boat we had lunch before tackling the remainder of the flight. There were quite a few boats around, many of which were crewed by people out for the first time so progress was rather slow. However, the splendid sunny day was comfortably warm, - even hot at times, so no-one was particularly distressed.
A long pound to the Glascote locks then followed. Two boats recently started from the hire base at Alvecote, one of which was a couple on their honeymoon! Along the next stretch we crossed a short aqueduct over the River Tame.
At Fazeley Junction we turned south onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. Unlike most major canal junctions, this was not as impressive as some, although what appeared to be a former lock or toll house was once a splendid residence, although currently not finding a much of a use, it seemed.
We passed the exit from Drayton Manor Park where a long line of cars were slowly making their way home after taking advantage of the good weather for a Saturday family day out. A bridal couple arrived at Drayton Foot and Swivel Bridges for a photo opportunity.
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