SUNDAY 30/05 21:00h
After numerous stops for cat-naps, I passed through Coventry to look at the canal basin (Victorian port) and to get some cash. A this point I realised that the boat was departing on 01/06 which is in fact Tuesday and not as I had believed Monday (Duh!) so I have a whole extra day to kill in Wales or wherever.

Travelling on I stopped in some retail park near Birmingham off the M6 to buy some Zip disks as my hard disk will probably fill up with pictures. While in the PC World, I spied a new type of game pad that will plug into the USB socket on the laptop (which doesn't have a game port of course). Ideal, I thought for playing the handful of games I brought for the Bleem! Then in the car park tragedy struck! To install it you need the Win98 CD - which is sitting in a drawer at home (DOH!).

Speeding along now (having finally woken up), I decided to make for Wales and the A458 to vaguely Aberystwyth but (as always) got side-tracked when I saw a sign for Ironbridge. One of Thomas Telfords greatest achievements was to cast this all iron bridge across the Severn. At the moment the bridge is clad in scaffolding for repairs but it is still quite impressive.

Almost as impressive is the power station cunningly hidden from the town by trees just a few hundred meters up the river. The giant red cooling stacks look surreal as they 'pop' up out of the lush and beautiful valley. Only the station itself finished in a particularly un-flattering line of black and grey spoils the view.

Finally, I stopped at 'The Old Police Station' B+B in Much Wenlock for the night. The Vodafone wouldn't work there so this transmission is a bit late.