Fun at Fazeley!!!

Earlyish start again.  After watering at the top of Glascote locks we followed a working boat down but he was soon last to us and we never saw him again.   Geoff decided to continue walking with Barmey as far as the junction at Fazeley.   Weather was indifferent, drizzley showers might be the best description.
Fazely junction was interesting.......mainly because I made a right Pigs Ear of the turn.   In my defence it is a very tight turn the way we were going, from the Coventry to the Birmimgham & Fazeley......nevertheless......I ended up broadside across the canal and stuck.  Inevitably there was a hire boat coming from the other direction wanting to go from whence we had come.   With the rudder jammed securely I had to resort to the bow thrusters, which eventually allowed me to redeem the situation.  C'est la vie.....
Once on the Birmingham & Fazeley we saw very few boats.  Passing Drayton Narrow Boat Hire just after the junction a lot of their boats were sitting idle......we have seen this in other places we have passed ..............obviously not a good year for the hire companies.

Going up the Curdworth locks

Such a patient Geffie

It's hard to believe that this very rural climb up the 11 locks at Curdworth are in fact only a stones throw from the M42

Moorings were shown after the Curdworth tunnel so we decided to call a halt for the day....it was approaching Geoff's siesta time!!!

The moorings were perfectly adequate and a sort of light oasis after the gloom of Curdworth tunnel.   However exploring later if we had gone on two more bridges we could have had a much better mooring overlooking open green fields....but by then we could not be bothered to move.

There was a small store just by the bridge and a pub which Geoff reported looked quite reasonable, although we did not try it.

Total distance:7.35 miles 
Elapsed time:5h7m18s 
Locks:11
Bridges:32 
Average speed:1.44 mph (3.58 lock/mph)