Off and out of the blocks by 8.45am. Not in any particular hurry today but wanted to get to the town of Penkridge by midday as they have a market day on Wednesdays.
We have been chris-crossing with the M6 all day and at times it has been right on top of us. Supposedly the traffic was meant to be at a stand still due to carnage further ahead on the carriage way. They must be pretty quick at getting it all cleared up as the traffic was back to its usual crazy speed.
When you look at the traffic from this angle, there are two things that come to mind. First is, how close the trucks overtake one another and the second, pleased we are not on that rodent wheel.
As we got closer to Penkridge we came upon a fishing competition which was to commence in 14 minutes. They were all very precise when we asked them. We were super pleased we were not going to be around once it started.
The fishing kit a lot of these guys have is just unreal and there are more than a few dollars in them. We saw one guy with a container cutting up whatever was inside with scissors. When we asked him what it was, he said it was worms and he was almost retching as he was doing it – that is commitment to your sport.
There is not a lot of love lost between boaters and fishermen as each feel that they were on the canals first. From an unbiased point of view, the canals were built for transportation and not fishing. It is not possible to argue that point with the Rod Squad.
They were spaced 20 meters apart along a kilometer area, and they all seemed pretty chatty, but they didn’t know that there were quite a few boats heading their way who were behind us. As to how many were coming ahead, who knows. The competition was to go for five hours – luck has it that they could wile away the time listening to Wimbledon.
The town of Penkridge wasn’t too bad and their main shopping street was reasonably vibrant. There was a butcher, greengrocer, three tea shops, interior decorating shops, way too many hairdressers and of course lots of charity shops. There wasn’t really much to take a photo of, and the market was OK but just the usual stuff that falls off the back of a lorry. Thought we would save ourselves the pixels.
Fraser went and got a haircut from the second most popular barber in Penkridge – there being only two of them. He knew before he went there that the latest review said, “Went in for a trim and came out looking like Stan Laurel”. He escaped the Stan Laurel look and the clippers, but the barber’s cutting skills were severely lacking. He has come out with a tuft of hair standing up on the top of his head making him look like a Christmas decoration.
Absolutely brilliant mooring for the night………but………couldn’t eat there as there was only one chef on, and they were too busy to take any other bookings until 8.45pm which was just a little too late for us to eat.
John and Lynne drove over to meet us at the pub as they are latterly a 10-minute car ride from us. We instead made our way to another establishment where we partook if food and beverage.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 