Traffic Jams

Barton Marina's waterside shops and restaurants

We were up, dressed and breakfasted by 08:30, ready for Hoodman. At 09:44 he phoned to say that he wasn't coming - Grrrr! After a protracted discussion, the visit is now re-scheduled for tomorrow, again. We considered whether we should stay put in the marina, or take off to beat the mass exodus from the festival which would lead to congestion at the locks. We decided to go, stopping only to nip to the Co-op in the nearby vilage and to top up the water tank. We left our mooring and pushed out onto the canal.

Part of the queue for the first lock

It wasn't long before oncoming boats shouted that there was a jam at the next lock, with 18 boats waiting. Sure enough, we passed through a bridge about half a mile from the lock and met the back of a queue of boats. The bank was too overgrown to be able to get onto dry land which meant we all had to shuffle about trying to hold station for a considerable time until getting close to the start of the queue. The queue slowly moved forward and after about 2.5 hours we made it into the lock.

Hard to see here, but this cute cow had a mohican!

Fradley Junction

Finally we were moving and whilst every lock had a queue, there were no further massive delays. We reached Fradley junction which now had rather more people, having a drink and gongoozling, than when we were here at 7 in the morning last time.

Fradley junction from the Coventry Canal

We turned left into the Coventry Canal, and after opening the swing bridge which crosses the start of the canal, we started to leave the crowds behind. We motored on for a few miles, into the open countryside (accompanied by railways and the M6), until we passed Streethay where we found a quiet spot to moor up for the night. Further communication from Hoodman confirmed his intention to complete the job wherever we wanted tomorrow. I really hope we will be including a picture of the finished hood tomorrow.