Tyrley Wharf, Shropshire Union – Wednesday 11 July 2012
Correction from yesterday (if any-one is reading this and noted my error).  When I wrote “I was approximately 3 miles east of where I moored at the weekend” it was, of course, 3 miles WEST!! The A5 road runs in a straight line, crossing both the Staffs & Worcs at Gailey and the Shropshire Union near Brewood.  By car that would be about 3 minutes!
Now for today, as usual it was raining when I was ready to go, so I had put on winter weather clothing to cope and set off at 08:30, by 10:00 the sun was out and it remained out, although it had been a bit blustery.
This stretch of the canal is certainly varied; long straight runs with fields either side, high embankments which must have given impressive views before the trees grew so tall and deep cuttings where the walls close in and boats have to pass in a sort of ‘lay-by’.  The embankments have gates at either end (similar to lock gates) in order that if there is a breach they can be closed allowing the rest of the canal to continue to operate.  At the other extreme the footpath through Woodseaves Cutting has been closed.  It is waterlogged (under water in some places) and the bank on the non-path side of the canal has collapsed.  This has been protected by three large pontoon ‘balloons’ being put round it, reducing the already narrow width, of course that’s where I met a boat going the other way.
There have been no names that really caught my eye today and only one boat – it looked like a river cruiser had mated with a narrow boat!  Narrow boat bow and stern (looked like it was made in metal), it had a steerer’s cockpit with wheel, about a third of the way back.
As it was not raining I have washed the boat, then just like washing a car – it rained