Grindley Flight and Dom

A grey morning, again, but warm and humid, i do like being warm so no complaints.

We pootled off after heavy rain last evening, we had sat out till well gone six pm and then having lost the sun then watched the serious clouds roll over, chairs in, books collected and quickly get that tonneau cover....

So off we went this morning, along a bit around the corner and here we are at The Grindley Locks, two regular ones then a pair of staircase locks.

Lovely colour combination of yellow and grey again

A charming little hamlet of houses surrounding these locks.

Pretty gardens that aren't hidden by hedges and fences.

Now I had sort of promised that when we get onto a quiet canal with nice tame narrow locks and no other boats anywhere, that I would have yet another go at helming and confidence building....  But all along this canal there have been these, this one was the worst so far;

Vicious hidden side washes or races.  David was supremely fantastic at this one and didn't bang.

Now David is pretty good at steering, he says he has used all of his experience dealing with these extra narrow locks and bridges with these side washes.  I do wonder how the novice hirers manage along here, the hire companies might consider rubber buffers along by this lock at the very least.  Can't imagine novices get through without banging, not their fault either.

I'll wait till we're off this canal to start again.

Lovely cafe and bottom lock of the staircase

Top lock of the pair.

Nice lady here opened the gate for me while I snapped.  Two volunteer lock keepers here and a paid one too.  I think they are doing a great job.   This is a very busy place in the high season, the lockie tells me that they have three boats in three locks, at Foxton Staircase locks near our home base in Leicestershire, they like to have one clear lock between boats.

We watered up on one of the four water points here (Not one was marked in our new book!)

We aimed for the tiny village of Bettisford which has a road bridge, it had started to rain so we hastily moored and got the  Tonneau cover on quickly.  We were expecting a visitor, Dom, the son of Amanda and David.  Dom had the tickets in his pocket for a Car Thingy at Cholmondeley Castle  (To do with engines yawn yawn )  HERE  David Lewis was coming tomorrow with another son to go to it on the following day.

We sat and chatted for the best part of a couple of hours with Dom whom we hadn't seen for a couple of years now.

Supper was spicy lamb burgers and salads.