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Is it Sunday already? Where ndoes the time go? Friday was spent cruising from Shardlow to Willington, passing on the way n.b. Granny Buttons but no sign of life on board. Perhaps he had been out prowling with his camera again in the wee small hours and was catching up with a bit of sleep!!

As an aside, whilst getting ready to leave Shardlow on Friday morning, a conker, complete with its prickly covering, decided to detach itself from the tree and land immediately behind me. No problem, you might say, but the thing was the size of a cricket ball and if it had hit me on the head...........

We reached Willington at 1500 hrs to find the main moorings full up, but, being Willington, there were plenty of towpath moorings still available although further from the facilities. Later that afternoon my niece drove over from Chruch Gresley, picked me up and took me to Redhill to pick up my car which I drove back to Willington, all in under an hour, the boat journey had taken several hours!! That evening we went for a meal at the Green Dragon with Jerry and Helen from n.b. Josephine. The meal was cheap and cheerful and filling!

Saturday was spent driving my car to Church Gresley, picking up my niece, her husband and son, and taking them to Birmingham Airport where they were flying off to Spain for 10 days. There flight was due to leave just after 3 but I later learnt that their flight was delayed several hours, goodness knows what time they eventually left! No such problems on the canal, or so I thought!!!

That evening I set off to find 3 caches in the Willington area, the first I couldn't find (but neither could anyopne else over the last 3 months - is it still there - I doubt it.) The second one I found easily but time I got to the third one it was getting dark. I was in the right place but the light had gone and I just could not find it.

Sunday was an easier day, we moved up to the facilities, filled up with water, emptied the loos and dumped the rubbish. Whilst there, we were moored alongside another boat who were pumping out their loo. Why is it that boaters always end up talking about toilet facilities???

We left Willington just before noon and pottered along slowly, worked through Dallow Lane Lock with no problems, passed through Burton on Trent and reached Branston Lock to find six boats waiting to go through. Where had they come from?? I went up to the lock and helped the boats through, some people just don't seem to do this and soon it was our turn. We passed through the lock, cruised a short distance and moored up at Branston. I then went off and did another cache, not really realising how far away it was. Tomorrow we will do a few more.