Schloars Green to Buglawton - no locks, 6 miles

Saturday was indeed a day of rest......... Well sort of.  I decided to go for a 4 mile run but 2.75 miles in something nasty happened to my left foot/heel which resulted in me very slowly limping back to the boat, you know it's bad when a guy pushing a toddler in push chair flies by as if you weren't even there!!!!!

By Sunday I could tolerate weight on it so we set off.

It was another glorious day as we headed towards Congleton.

The canal sits up high at various points with the countryside dropping away, but is surprisingly beautiful.

This was one of the last canals to be built, and they came up with a different design for the bridges where the towpaths swap sides, which removed the need for unleashing the horse.

As we travelled on we passed through Congleton and what we christened bridge junction!!!

I was grateful that there were no locks on this stretch as I was able to rest my foot - supposed to be going sight seeing in London Tuesday!!  Never mind training for the Great North Run.......... I am a very bad patient, not very good at doing nothing.

We found a beautiful spot to moor up, tranquil and very pretty.

Rod cleaned the boat whilst I sat on the back of the boat with George reading a book.

As the sun set we had a great view of the moon.

We are waiting for the fuel boat tomorrow, to fill up with diesel, get a new gas bottle and pump out the waste tank, and hopefully get a physio appointment.

EH 518.7

Friday Endon - Schloars Green - 8 locks, 3 lift bridges, Harecastle Tunnel, 14.5 miles, 9 hours

The forecast for today was beautiful so we planned an early start  if possible we wanted to get through Stoke and the Harecastle tunnel.

So at 7:00 we pulled pins and were on our way, it was sunny but still quite chilly.

As we got to Stockton Brook locks it appeared that a boat was probably travelling in the same direction ahead of us as all of the locks were against us.

It was a glorious morning with the sun shining and the sky a clear blue, made a lovely change from the ever present threat of rain that had been with us for most of the week.

As we headed closer to Stoke the sprawl of suburbia replaced the rolling fields that we had enjoyed on the majority of the Caldon canal.

George and I headed off to do the last lift bridge, luckily we didn't hold any traffic up today.

We continued to make good progress and arrived at Eurthia and the junction of the Caldon canal and the Trent & Mersey just after noon and stopped to fill up with water.  I was helped through the staircase locks just before this by a little boy Toby and his grandmother, for which I was very grateful as the middle gates were particularly heavy.

As we left the Caldon we would have to agree that it is a hidden gem, very quiet and well worth a visit.

Back on the Trent & Mersey we spotted what initially looked like a shiny stone, but as we got closer we realised it was actually a large Terapin.

We arrived at the Harecastle tunnel.  The tunnel keeper advised we had a good hour to wait as a boat heading in our direction had entered the tunnel about 15 minutes ago and three boats were waiting to come the other way, so we sat in the sun and enjoyed a nice chicken ceasar salad.

By the time we were able to go in there were 3 of us and we had the lead.

It was weird going into the tunnel from such bright sun light as initially you are not able to see anything. The main difference travelling north through the tunnel, is the doors closing behind the last boat and then when the fans kick in you get this rush of smoggy air and for a couple of seconds you are in a fog!

The tunnel us about a mile long but is incredibly straight so you can see the small speck of light at the end.

George wasn't that impressed with the tunnel and took himself off to bed.

Finally we are back in the day light.  There are several boats waiting to go through in the opposite direction, and you can just see the boat behind us emerging from the tunnel.

We then turned right onto the Macclesfield canal and moored up just after the first lock. Three canals in a day can't be bad.  I think Saturday will be a day of rest.

Saturday - Thursday - Caldon Canal - 12 locks, 9 miles

Saturday we travelled a sort distance back to the point where the Leek branch crosses over the Caldon line, this just so happens to be by a pub!  This was important as we were meeting Mike and Liz on Sunday for lunch.  Having moored up we felt it was encumbant upon us to check it out - the things we have to do :-).

The pub, The Holly Bush Inn, was very friendly and had a couple of border terriers in the public bar Spike and Dillon, George would have loved it.

Dillon was on the boat moored behind us, the guy was working on the towpath improvements that we had seen earlier in the week and had travelled down to moor by the pub for the weekend, from chatting to him sounds like this was his regular weekend stop whilst working on this contract.

Sunday

We had a lovely lunch with Mike and Liz and then shared with them our holiday photos - hope we didn't bore them too much!!  The pub was actually down on the Caldon canal, from the car park you could just make out By The Way on the tow path.

Monday

The forecast for today was not great, heavy rain all day - urgh!  But when we got up it was not too bad, so we decided to make a move.

As we approached the junction that would take us onto the Caldon canal, we spotted fluorescent jackets at the second lock.  So I was sent ahead as the scout to see if they were just working on the towpath or if it was the lock.  When I got there the sign before the lock advised it was the towpath.  So we were good to go.  I was clearly having a very blonde morning as I turned the lock around when it was actually in our favour - doh!!  Now had the workmen on the second lock actually been working they would probably have noticed this and I would have been duly embarrassed but as they were all either on their phones or smoking a fag or both, they were totally oblivious, so my blushes were spared.

We travelled on passed the old flint mill at Cheddleton, which is now a working museum.

Through the next flight of three locks and found a lovely spot to moor up at near the steam railway.  Lucky we stopped when we did as the forecast rain put in an appearance at that point.

Those of you of a certain age will recognise the blue engine on the front!  Here they use it to shunt the carriages around.

Monday evening we headed out to the pub The Black Lion in Cheddleton to watch Tottenham vs Sunderland - never a good one for us as this is the only game we watch were we truly have split allegiances.  It started well for me as Sunderland took the lead, but it was short lived and by the end of the evening I was totally depressed - hence I had to have 3 glasses of wine!!!  The pub was really friendly and apart from the result it was a good night ( Tottenham won 5 v 1 ).

Tuesday

We set off with the aim of getting to the end of the Caldon branch, we were however a little nervous as the river Churnett runs parallel at this point before the canal and river run together for a short period.  Our nervousness was a result of the speed the river was running at.  As we arrived at the lock where the two merge, there were warning signs, and off I went to check the height of the river at the board under the bridge - low and behold it was on Red, so we had to turn round and head back.

We are not very lucky with river sections, the year before last we got stuck at Loughborough on our two weeks holiday, because the River Soar was in flood.

Never mind we had made it most of the way.  As we travelled back passed Sundays pub we travelled under the Hazelhurst Aqueduct.

We the went back through the locks that had work being carried out on the towpath, as with the day before there clearly wasn't that much work going on!!! No wonder councils are broke.......

We stopped at a small village called Endon.

Wednesday & Thursday

These were work days fro Rodney, but I did get to observe some more men supposedly at work on the canal towpath and the road - have to say there really was not much work going on it seemed one person worked and three looked on!!! Not sure who supervises this work for the council but they need to get a grip........ Sorry rant over, but when so many services are being cut it is really frustrated to see so much money clearly being wasted....rant really over now.

Friday - Milton to Leek - 6 locks, 2 lift bridges, 6.5 miles, 5.5 hours

We set off quite early to travel down the Leek branch of the Caldon Canal.

At the first lock, which was immediately in front of us we were caught up by another boat heading in our direction.  As I finished the lock the guy who was on his own asked me to leave the lift bridge up for him which I said I would.  The lift bridge was just round the corner, so once Rod was through I needed to get back to the tow path which was on the opposite side.  Anyway with a bit of manoeuvring of the boat I managed to jump on and across to get back to the tow path - then a man with a collie appears, the bridge is part of a public footpath, and yes he wanted to cross the bridge, and the other boat was no where in sight -  aarghhhh - so Rod did a bit more manoeuvring and I scrambled back up the bank to lower the bridge!!!  That's what you get for trying to be helpful - needless to say the bridge stayed down :-)).

We made our way through the flight of 5 locks at Stockton Brook.  Then as we headed towards Endon, we went round our first roundabout on the canal!!!!

Not really, it is the pivot point from an old railway turn bridge :-).

George was particularly chilled today.

It's a hard life!!

As we had been told this really is a hidden gem, beautiful countryside and hardly any boat traffic.

The canal splits with one branch heading off to Leek, the other towards Uttoxeter, we were taking the Leek branch first and then coming back to take the Uttoxeter branch. Unfortunately the canal no longer goes all the way to Uttoxeter, but finishes at Froghall.

The two branches run alongside each other, albeit at very different heights before the Leek branch crosses over the top of the Caldon canal.

The locks that drop the Caldon down.

Then the two cross each other.

As we travelled on there were some beautiful houses backing onto the canal. 

We then approached the Leek tunnel which was restored in the 1980's.

Once through the tunnel we had to turn the boat as this was the last winding hole big enough for us.  Once turned, Rod then reversed By The Way down the last few hundred yards to the end of the canal.

The end of the navigation!  The last mile and half that went to Leek has been filled in.

We travelled back through the canal and moored up for the night.

Tonight's tea, was a Red Thai Chicken curry, with rice and a side dish of mushrooms, pak choi and noodles.

With a glass or two of wine!!!  Perfect end to a beautiful day.

Tuesday - Wedgewood to Milton on the Caldon Canal - 9.5 miles, 9 locks, 1 lift bridge, 5.5 hours

As we left Wedgewood it was a little misty but it promised to be a beautiful day if you believed the forecast.  We knew this was going to be a long day as needed to get through the built up areas of Stoke-on-Trent and take the Caldon Canal to Milton.

As we got underway the first couple of locks were against us, as we headed to the third a guy on a bike who was cycling towards us from the lock suddenly turned round and went back to the lock, to our surprise he was setting the lock so we could sail straight in!

We passed The Brittania Stadium, Stoke will be in the Premiership next season, I have a very bad feeling that Sunderland won't!!

It transpired that it was this guys hobby to cycle up and down this stretch of locks and help people.  I was really grateful as having passed no other boats all of the locks were continuing to be against us.

He cycled off but reappeared again a couple of locks down.  Turned out they call him Rob the lock.

 There are many old buildings on this stretch, from the days when this was an industrial heartland.

A couple of the locks on this  stretch have anti-vandal locks on them, luckily we had purchased the key on the way through Stoke in November, although we had not needed to use it then as the locks had not been on. They are also very deep and full of rubbish, what is it with people have they never heard of litter bins!!!!

We turned the sharp right onto the Caldon Canal, this is a new stretch for us.  We could have easily missed it as the sign was not obvious.

Just after we turned onto the Caldon, we passed a statue of James Brindley who was the engineer for the Trent and Mersey canal.

Rob the lock helped us through the next 3 locks then shot off as he had a boat he was booked to help at 3:00, apparently lots of people ring him up when they are going through this stretch! 

The first couple of miles are a bit strange as you have a mixture of new buildings and old run down industrial units.

We travelled on and passed through Milton stopping just before next lock as the countryside opened up, the rest of the Caldon is supposed to be very rural and picturesque, it is apparently a hidden gem, we will soon find out.

EH 496

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