Handsacre to Kings Bromley Marina

We made the very short journey from Handsacre to the marina, this will probably be our last voyage of 2013 :-((.

Kings Bromley will be our base for the next couple of months, over the Christmas period and into February though we will hopefully be able to get out in January.

Yesterday we walked George by the Trent and around the grounds at Shugborough Hall.

Above is the Windy Tower and below the main house - or should I say mansion.

We were going to stop at the Cafe at the hall but fortunately it was closed, I say fortunately as we found a great little Cafe next to the lock on the Trent & Mersey which most unusually had a conservatory that dogs were allowed in, so for once we didn't have to sit outside and drink our coffee!!

We got back and soon had the stove up and running on coal instead of logs for a change.

We are off to get Mr B's Christmas pressie today and I am very pleased to announce that Movember is finally over - yippee!!!!

Stone to Handsacre - Mon-Fri. 6 locks, 17.5 miles, 9 hours

MONDAY

We made the short journey from Stone to a small village called Weston.

We found a lovely pub the Saracen Inn, where we had dinner.  The food was great, Rod had Black Pudding, Pancetta and mushroom, with a fried egg to start.

I had the fish goujons to start they were beautiful, made me wish I had been my usual creature of habit and had fish and chips for my main!

All washed down with a very nice bottle of wine.

Whilst we have moved in December the Movember theme is still running, I think it is here until at least 2014!!

TUESDAY

We continued on to Shugborough Hall, the ancestral home of lord Lichfield.  This took us back onto the stretch of the Trent & Mersey we completed back in early September.  Last time we turned towards Wolverhampton, this time we continued towards the Trent.

The River Trent runs alongside the Trent & Mersey for the next 5/6 miles.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was a work day for Rodney so I took the opportunity to take George for a long walk along the Trent.

To get to the Trent we had to cross the narrow old bridge clearly built before the arrival of cars.

The river Trent and the River Sow merge just before coming under the bridge.

We then walked along the river.

We took a bit of a mystery tour hoping that we would ultimately make it back to the canal, we were obviously still on the edge of the Shugborough Estate.

This has to be one the most ornate railway bridges in the country.

The weather was really rough on Wednesday night and through out Thursday, but luckily no trees came down near us.

THURSDAY

Didn't move today as Rod was working, we won't have moved even if he wasn't given the wind!! Surprisingly a couple of boats did go past battling to stay in a straight line.

I took the opportunity to put up a few Christmas decs.

Fair to say he is not impressed, even less so now!!!!!

Someone help me!! Woof

George was less keen on this than his harness or his life jacket, it was on for all of 2 mins and won't be coming out again till Christmas Day!!!!

FRIDAY

We left Shugborough at just after 9:00, there was only one lock to do, an easy day!

We crossed over the River Trent again at Brindley Bank.

Think some one must have been drunk in charge of this boat.

We are moored at Handsacre near the Crown Inn, which we may need to test later on!

(EH 471)

Sunday - Barlaston - Stone, 8 locks, 3 miles, 3.5 hours

We were spoilt again today with lots of people to help as we were joined by Nic, Ant, Steph, Gemma and Connor.

The weather was certainly our friend again today, especially given it's the 1 December.

We left Batlaston at 10:30 with the aim of getting to Stone for a late lunch.

There were a few locks to get through but the crew were soon in the swing of things.

Although at one stage it all clearly got too much for Ant and Connor!

George was in his element with a choice of who to sit on.

You may notice there are no pictures of Nic here, she has a bad ankle which meant she was unable to assist with lock duty!  She did however, make a cracking cuppa and she was in charge of photography.

We made excellent time to Stone and had a nice Sunday lunch at the Star pub next to the canal.  A great day.

It will be a shock tomorrow when I am back to solo lock duty, luckily there are only a couple!!

Saturday - Hall Green to Barlaston - 7 locks, 1 tunnel, 12.5 miles

Mike and Liz arrived at 9:00 and we were off.

It was a cold but beautiful day.

Luckily as it was Saturday there was no dredging work to hold us up and we were soon at the entrance to the Harecastle tunnel.  The tunnel is 2926 yards long and takes about 40 mins to get through and is only wide enough for one boat, so time it wrong and you have a long wait to go through, surprisingly we were able to go straight in.

After 40 mins in the dark, we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel and the tunnel keeper waiting for us.

We cruised on towards Stoke.  George was very happy sitting on Liz's lap.

As we got to Stoke it was great to have help at the locks.

As we came through Stoke at various points there was evidence of the old potteries.

We moored not far from the most famous of them all.

We took George for a last walk and were lucky enough to see a Kingfisher, the third one today.  We also saw the most beautiful Mandarin duck.

We were then spoilt with most beautiful sunset.

Church Lawton to Hall Green - 7 locks, 5 miles, 4 hours

We were back on the move today.

On Wednesday afternoon the coal boat came by and we filled up with diesel, had the waste tank emptied and got 3 bags of coal.

We had to do a double take on Wednesday morning as a lady walked past with a border terrier and another dog, it looked just like George and Sandy!!

It was a bit of a miserable day, but we set off at 8:00, heading to the junction with the Macclesfield canal, we will be taking a brief excursion onto this before we go through the Harecastle tunnel.

This stretch of water on the Trent & Mersey is very red, it is as if we are sailing on rusty water. We think it is being made worse by the dredging that is taking place.

You can see how red the water is where it has been leaking through the lock gates.

The bridge ahead is the Macclesfield canal crossing over the Trent & Mersey.

As we got to the last lock on the Trent & Mersey we had a short wait as this is the first stretch of dredging.

The two barges are exactly the same, but the one nearest the crane is full and they have just finished emptying the other one, apparently when full they weigh about 25 tons!

By The Way is now turning onto the Macclesfield canal, just as we got round the bend we met another dredging barge, we had a brief wait of about 10 mins before we could get passed.

We then crossed over Trent & Mersey where we had previously passed under the Macclesfield.

We were only travelling to the first winding hole and then turning round to moor up.  On the way we went past the biggest stash of wood we have seen so far on our travels - don't think they are going to be cold this winter!

We are off through the Harecastle Tunnel tomorrow with Mike and Liz.

As we have a long way to travel tomorrow we decided to get the van to our planned stopping point, we can then drive back to get Mike's car.  To get back to boat we had to get a bus to Stoke railway station and then a train back to Kidsgrove, by which time it was dark and we had made a school boy error - no torch!!! We had to walk about a mile down the towpath with just the iPhone to light the way, luckily the moon was out and there was quite a bit of light pollutionand even more luckily neither of us fell in!

(EH 448)