The last leg.

This is an example of why I am not a lover of this canal,  endless trees, long straight sections and no views or anything of interest to look at.

Endless trees. 

More trees

On the plus side there has been a good section of cutting back thats has happened recently.

 

Next day we set off and sometime later David blurted out Oh blimey we didn't get fuel,  I helmed while David dipped the tank and he said that we had enough to get to Wheaton Aston where an ancient garage has an extra long hose that pops over the wall down to the canal and sells cheaper diesel.

Then 20 minutes later the engine coughs and splutters and dies a death.  We drift but without any power to get us to the tow path.  Five minutes later a boat hove into view and we signalled to them, it was Kevin and Carol off of NB Eleanor.

Well they rescued us, it took a while of abortive rope throwing, but we ended up with Kevin on our boat and his wife alone on her boat.   Not seeing anything obvious we wondered if it was indeed a fuel problem.

Well WaL started up again and Kevin said that they would follow us incase it happened again.

We got to the outskirts of Gnosall, embarrassingly Kevin had had to walk as their boat couldn't get in to pick him up...

WaL had completely cut out again here and Kevin helped us pull her onto the visitor moorings.  I'd already checked Google and there is a garage 4 minutes away on a bike.  We thanked them both and they chugged on.  If it wasn't he fuel then at least we had road access to call Canal And River Rescue.  Thank you Kevin and Carol for your help. 

David cycled off to purchase two cans and fuel, it was a messy business with diesel ending up on the rear deck of Wal, David's shorts and hands and all over the outside of the cans.  That done I highly recommended that he repeat the process.  So and hour later,   WaL started up and we gingerly set off.  

It would appear to have been some muck in the fuel that had caused a blockage but then cleared itself, it was an error to have let the level get so low, normally D knows in his head with mileage and litres.

I called ahead to the garage at Wheaton Aston, the chap said I've already closed, I've just come back to answer the phone...

So we were faced with the only place in striking distance for diesel was closed until Monday morning, this was Saturday at 2pm.  David didn't want to do that so I called up the Napton Narrowboat base at Autherley Junction, they only had enough for their own boats as they were due a delivery midweek.  I called the wee wharf Oxley Marine which is also just at the junction,  no answer, not many options.

I had the wizardly wheeze to ask a liveaboard if they had any spare fuel to sell.

Okay said David, give it a go.

Five minutes later we came across a line of boats and I called out to a person with his back to me, he turned and I was a tad surprised...

A very kind pair.

Quite a sight.  

But these two as you can see were happy and laughing.  He leapt over and emptied the jerry can into WaL, 21 litres, they ABSOLUTELY refused all offers of payment.  

A gift. 

From boaters to boaters in need.

That will teach me to make snap judgements about appearances.

Well in the event we did stay in the shade, falling leaves, drizzle and gloom of Wheaton Aston until Monday morning.  We went to the pub for Sunday Lunch and were on the deck for the fuel to open at 08:45.

Oh flip I forgot what this hill is called, but here it is.

Here's the garage, it only sells diesel, I would imagine safety standards may have changed a bit now.

This was outside the garage Sunday.

Lots of yellow in the trees now.  Not much red.

Aylesbury ducks, my favourites, I used to keep these ducks.

Rosehips.

I carefully went down the steps to get this shot.  David has wanted me to do this each trip on this canal.  But the tree has ruined the shot.  I would have stepped into the middle of the road but Watling Street (or the A5) is so busy I feared being suncked under the wheels of a lorry.  I fell up the wooden steps going back and bruised my shin.

Autherley Junction this morning was a bit tricky as another boat was exiting the lock when we arrived?

Meeting this on a bend with a bridge was a bit of a surprise, but the crew leapt to his bow and pushed us off, he then jumped off and guided his boat around that bridge.

One of the worst blind bends on the Staffs to Worcester canal.

Unbelievably we have seen 4 Kingfishers, here is the last one who DIDN'T fly away, you will have to squint, I didn't have time to zoom in.

We tried something different for packing up.  We arrived at the marina in the early afternoon.  I had packed our clothes on the last stretch, so we felt it would be a quick get away the next morning, was it heck.  I reckon we took 3 hours, but included in that was the overwintering of the boat.  One of the last things I remembered to run the taps, now the water was on zero but it still took over 20 minutes...  But we did remember to turn off the gas, this time.

Well that's us done for this summer.  It was a drab last week not least due to the non stop grey skies, chilly temperatures and too many trees.

We may come back to WaL if the weather is dry, when she gets her annual service, we'll see.  Got to nip over to New Zealand in January to see those angels and got to tell my mother we are going.  

So Abyssinia  

TTFN.