Gnosal Heath, Shropshire Union – Tuesday 10 July 2012
Woke up early, cloudy with sunny patches, ready to go at 08:30 and guess what?  It had started raining – very heavy and it continued all the time I was moving. 
I have covered 1 lock and 12 miles today, at about 10:30 I was approximately 3 miles east of where I moored at the weekend, having travelled 24 lock-miles on the canal.  This way is more fun.
At Bridge 27 (near Church Eaton) there were a group of canoeists waiting to go in the water when I had passed, I warned them there was another boat about 200 yds behind me and as I went through the bridge there was a boat going the other way.  I warned him as well because from his direction it was a ‘blind’ bridge.
Today has been a day for enjoying boat names and thinking where they came from; ‘Water Gypsy’ and ‘Dunrushin’ are straightforward ‘T’mora’ a bit of fun.  Then there’s the pairs ‘Smaug’ and ‘Thorin’ (Tolkien – Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), ‘Rincewind’ and ‘Twoflower’ (Pratchett – Discworld ™).  I also saw another Braidbar (none for a few days), this was no 74 ‘Maple’.  So the journey has been enjoyable in spite of the rain.