Through Gailey & onto the Shroppie

Away from Penkridge cruiseing to Gailey and in the picture below the lock is through the bridge and the fine looking tall round structure is the old Toll collecters office and from those high windows he could see boats approaching so the old working boats had no chance of slipping through the lock without paying their dues.
Leaving the lock i notice some of the Viking Afloat hire fleet sit waiting to be craned in after some winter maintenance, won`t be long now before hire boats are all over the canal system are once again conjesting the waterways i and other liveaboards have had to ourselves all winter.

Autherley Jct. is where i turn right onto the Shropshire Union Canal after passing through a stop lock the difference in water levels being inches not feet. (sod the EU it`s feet&inches)
I love the Shroppie with it`s high bidges and narrow cuttings and a distinct absence of sharp bends in fact i think it must be the straightest canal i`ve travelled.
I cruised as far as Brewood and in fact moored away from the visitor moorings as they are enclosed by trees on both banks so a mile walk back to access the village was worth it.
The following morning was sunny so a good chance to chop some logs and looking up i saw a familar boat approaching, Chas & Ann were coming through the bridge on Moore2Life so the kettle went on and a nice hour was passed chatting on board NB Valerie.

Don`t know what Chas is doing at the stern but Ann has the bow into the bank. Chas &Ann have been cruising with Sue&Vic on No Problem but No Problem is having some work done inside and will be moored for a while. I know many of you follow Sue`s blog but at the moment it has a bug that is causing a few problems so be patient and i`m sure Sue will fix it soon.
New link to the NO PROBLEM blog is HERE.