Aston Marina - Wedgewood Nr Barlaston - 5.5 miles, 9 locks, 3 hours 35 mins

We left the marina at just after 10:00 this morning, it was a bit grey but the sun was trying to put in an appearance.

We were unsure how far we would be able to get today as we had received a canal and river trust notification that the canal was blocked by a fallen tree just north of Stone.

As it transpired the tree was not going to be the the risk to our journey, but instead a lack of water ............... I know we have had one of wettest winters on record ......... But something was not right today with the flow on the canal.  As we started the Meaford flight of locks, the boat waiting to come the other way advised they had been waiting for a good couple of hours for the water levels to come up sufficiently for them to move, and another boater advised they had been sitting on the canal bottom overnight.

The site of the fallen tree.

The lock is full, but is a good foot below where it should be!

You can see where the water has dropped.

We proceeded with caution, as we filled the locks you could visibly see the canal dropping, very bizarre . Once we got through the top lock all seemed to back to normal....... who knows what the underlying issue was.

There were some early signs of spring with cherry blossom and our first sighting of lambs.

Our first cherry blossom.

Spring has definitively sprung :-))

EH 490.6