Rugeley

19th - 25th August The backdrop to Rugeley is the four huge cooling towers of the power station which dominate the scenery. Ugly, yes, but actually Rugeley is not too bad, especially on a sunny day. On Monday we decided to catch the bus into the centre of town to get some groceries. We were waiting at the bus stop, not knowing when the bus would arrive as the timetable had gone, when a little boy of about ten on a bike pulled up opposite and shouted "Are you waiting for the bus?" When we said yes he told us he had just left Armitage and he'd seen the bus there so it would only be another 10-15 minutes. We thanked him - how sweet can you get? As promised the bus arrived and we got on and because we didn't know where we were going asked an old lady where we should get off for the supermarket. A young man overheard and said it was 3 stops. Three stops later they all said "It's here!" So we got off but unfortunately we were not in Rugeley at the Morrisons as we intended, but at a small Co-op in Brereton, on the outskirts of Rugeley. I had a shopping list on which we had planned out 4 days of meals and a lot of the ingredients were not available in the Co-op so we had to re-think quickly. Having simplified the menu, we got a few things that we needed and then went to the bus stop to get the bus back. The bus stop was next to a childrens' park with a proper paddling pool! These are not allowed in London any more because of 'elf and safety! We got the bus back and decided that we would take the boat into Rugeley on Wednesday lunchtime, get the proper shopping and go on to the other side of Rugeley to moor up where I still have a signal. Rugeley is an old fashioned sort of town, a bit run down and overrun with charity shops, but not unpleasant. Some nice houses line the canal – it's not downmarket at all. Having got all our requirements at Morrisons I found I had some work to do so Dale navigated us to the other side of Rugeley where we stopped opposite a pig farm, which got quite noisy at certain times of day but we had some lovely views of Cannock Chase the other side. On Friday night after I had finished work we cruised on about a mile further to moor up near the pub called the Wolseley Arms and walked there to have a couple of drinks and a very pleasant evening. There was an Indian takeaway nearby and we didn't feel like cooking so got a takeaway. It was raining and very dark as we walked back so much hilarity was had struggling through the woods to the boat using Dale's lighter to light the way.