Negotiating the traffic

We had stuff to do today. A prescription to pick up from the chemist in South Fradley. The larder to re-stock. A grandchild's birthday card to buy, write and post. Erin Mae's water tank to re-fill. Prepare for getting back to Streethay tomorrow. All of which meant we needed to get up to the water point at Fradley Junction, wind Erin Mae at the junction and come back down to our South Fradley mooring again before it got filled up with other boats. Cards, prescription and shopping are available from no other mooring in this vicinity without some Olympics-style exercise. So off we went.

At this point, we'd already been in the queue for water for over half an hour. Three boats in front of us and a drowsily slow tap. We had time for coffee and a snooze while our own tank was filling. Finally, it was through the swing bridge to the junction itself.

The "Mucky Duck" was looking good in the sun, but the plethora of boats did not look promising. All I wanted to do was turn around!

Boats going up, boats coming down. It was a right traffic jam, and the space for me to perform my manoeuvre was limited. Fortunately one boat offered to move a bit, and some windlass-winders on the towpath helped to pull Erin Mae's nose round at a critical point. Back we went the mile or so to South Fradley, and found there was happily still one length left into which we could fit.

So this afternoon I was able to walk to the shops, pick up the medications, replenish the larder and buy the birthday card. Back to Erin Mae so we could write the card, and then another half-mile to the nearest post-box. In the context of which I discovered there is a very useful website which tells you the locations of post boxes. Can be handy, even in this electronic era.

I've done enough walking for one day.