Day 7 Fradley Junction to The Plum Pudding

Today's breakfast. Smoked salmon from the butcher's, scrambled egg, on top of toasted bread from the baker's.

We need to get to the other side of bridge 59a today as the canal will be closed there from tomorrow morning till sometime in December. But it's not far, and should be (another) relaxing day

But first things first, we have filled another cassette, which I empy at the services across from our mooring

Vera approaching the first lock of the day. The beautiful autumn morning thing is getting a bit clichéd. I may be getting tired of writing it, but we are not getting tired of this run of good weather. 

Vera approaching the second lock, dealing with passing the boat that has just left the lock alongside boats moored on the bank. It shows how far she has come in her canal boat journey that she can just take these situations in her stride

The glorious autumn colours might be pretty to look at, but they do mean that the canal is full of dead leaves. It is surprising how a few leaves in the water can have a dramatic effect on the boat's progress. They seem to get trapped within the propeller area. A short burst of reverse gear does shift them and normal progress can resume

Another kingfisher today, as we travel through Handsacre, Vera's first of the trip.

We reach bridge 59a just after 1pm, and now feel very safe and secure. The collapsing towpath bank is very evident

Moor up shortly afterwards for lunch and then another mile to the Plum Pudding, a canalside pub with its own moorings. Stop here for the night

Lift up the hatch to the engine bay for my standard end of day checks and tasks. We have also received instructions from Andrew on resetting the boiler for the central heating. Hallelujah, the boiler now works. Not that we need to use the heating, the logburner is very cozy, but it's good to know another boat system is working.

While doing this a boat passes us very slowly going in the opposite direction. They don't realise that the canal closes tomorrow and they will have to travel just over a mile to turn around and return, otherwise they will be trapped on the wrong side of the closure. They manage to do this, returning just before sunset. A narrow escape for them!

We wander into the Plum Pudding at 6.30 to find food stopped being served two hours earlier. So after a drink we walk a half a mile down the road to the Ash Tree

arriving just in time for Christmas. Someone has flicked a switch, Halloween has been replaced by the next event in the calendar

When we return to Venture I find that Ian has sent a link here, showing his drone footage of our journey through one of yesterday's locks. It's a very restful and relaxing 12 minutes, and really captures the superb autumn colours I keep wittering on about

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