Wednesday 27th

Cold and rainy. Add Atherstone to your list of 100 places not to see before you die.* see below. Went through last evening: a dirty poster informed me that the historic town centre remained virtually unchanged. That may be so, but even the promise of fish and chips at 9pm after a flight of 11 locks single-handed, was not enough to tempt me to leave the boat in the capable hands of a few dodgy youngsters hanging around. Nearby, there seeed to be a lot of rugged types with shotguns and dogs.....so Moondaisy lifted her skirts and ran.

Anyone passing might have been entertained to see me poling the boat like a crazed gondolier, as local chavs had left some lock gates open, allowing the top pound level to drop about a foot.

* I was a bit unkind to Atherstone, after a long day, near dusk and in the rain. In fact, it is quite a nice town. It is on the line of Watling Street - the old Roman road and has lots of shops- some pretty good. The station building - now a vet's, is lovely. Somehow the canal, with a lot of people walking dogs and picnicing, looked much more inviting in the sunshine. The main street has survived the engineering endeavours of the road builders and the Council has failed to demolish the historic core - probably through lack of funds. Some decent pubs and some of the long "yards" behind the houses have survived. A good church with a hexagonal tower sits by a large paved square, which hopefully has markets as it would be a great setting. I hope that gives a more balanced view !