At last a short day and a lie in! Sheer luxury not setting off until after 9.00am. We were now well clear of Birmingham and out into countryside again and whilst the day was rather grey it was good to see the greenery around us once again.

Curdworth Locks is a long drawn out flight of 11 locks stretching over a couple of miles and it proved to be an enjoyable variation between walking to set the next lock and getting back on board for longish cruises in between. All of the locks were quite pleasant and there was nothing much to report until we reached the bottom lock which had a Welcome sign and some very pretty flowers together with a disused swing bridge which added to the interest. The Dog & Doublet alongside lock 9 looked to be an interesting pub but it was too early for lunch so we didn't stop.

A long straightish stretch took us to Drayton Manor with its unique footbridge and swing bridge alongside. This is one of those waterways sites which, if you haven't seen it before, is quite unexpected and well worth a visit. Just a short run to Fazeley Junction which I had passed through on a different trip just a week ago. Junctions are always worth a sit and watch and we stopped here for lunch, taking a walk into the town only to find very little of interest. None of the pubs looked as if they did food so we stopped at the convenience store to get some stuff to take back to the boat. As we ate lunch the junction became quite busy with, at one point boats going in every direction, all trying to turn on or off the Coventry at the same time. Great fun to watch!

We were now back on the Coventry canal and despite the fact that I had cruised this way twice last week it was still a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon passing through Hopwas and Hopwas Woods and on through Whittington, past the home of Syd Arkless whose Canal Planner had been a huge help in working out our route. On to Huddlesford Junction where we moored just past bridge 83 intending to go to The Plough for dinner that night. It was only 4.30pm so this had been our shortest day and a relaxing one at that. The boat had to be back for another owner to take over the next morning so we spent a couple of hours cleaning her out and tidying everything up as well as washing down the outside. A passing boater promised to come back and give me a thrashing if I caused it to rain by all the washing!

Dinner at The Plough turned out to be a huge disappointment as detailed in Eating Out and we would have gone elsewhere if had there been any other pub around. We couldn't even eat on board because we had no food left save for a few snacks which we devoured after our disappointing meal.

This was our last full day and was quite a change from our heavy cruising earlier. As we went to bed we began to realise that we only had a few more hours cruising left and it would be a long time before we would be able to get on board Slipstream again.