Sunny, mostly, to Haywood junction

Saturday 28^th September; Aston marina to Haywood junction (ish).

Aston marina is lit by fairy lights at night, all over the restaurant buildings and outdoor pods, and round the bridge between the two mooring basins.  There was live music too, but once that had stopped it was very peaceful.  We woke to bright sunshine and no wind, so it was easy to slide out of our berth and trickle over to the wharf for fuel and a pump-out, both good value for money.  It was almost 10.30 by the time we were properly on the move, in glorious sunshine.  I wouldn’t say it was warm, but it certainly stopped being cold.  We had a lovely cruise down to Sandon lock, where a boat was already coming up the lock. 

With three boats waiting below, and their crew manning the bottom gates, I had nothing to do – absolutely nothing – and was sent on my way to walk the dog down to Salt bridge.  It’s about a mile. 

At the bridge we swapped over, and I steered while Dave walked to the next bridge, shortly before Weston.  At Weston lock a familiar boat was coming up – Brian and Diana on Harnser.

After a brief ‘hello’ we were in the lock and going down.  The top beam has a running repair, as CRT seem to have got a bit behind with gate maintenance.  We’ll see another example tomorrow.

Weston top gate

We’d hoped to stop before Ingestre bridge for lunch, but there were a lot of fishermen sbout.

Huh, that was meant to be our lunch stop

There was a space on a 48-hour mooring on the way to Hoo Mill lock where we stopped for a lunch break, before going on to Haywood junction, where I wanted to visit the shop.

If the northern part hadn't been cancelled, the HS2 bridge would have smashed the woodland on the right to oblivion

Unfortunately all the rough mooring spots were occupied by fishermen, it being the weekend,  and the one space remaining on the ‘official’ moorings before the junction had a fisherman right on the end, so preventing any boat from getting into the space.  So we turned onto the Staffs and Worcester, hoping for a spot on Tixall wide.  But it was rammed – well, it’s a lovely Saturday, so hardly surprising!

What a beauty

We made a slow turn with minimal revs, enjoying the view, before cruising back to Swivel bridge and mooring shortly before the permanent offside moorings.  We're not going into Birmingham via the Wolverhampton flight!  After buying meat, veg, some snacks for tomorrow, a packet of oatcake mix and some Snugsbury’s ice cream, it was time for the job I’ve been putting off all summer – cleaning the flue.  A couple of years ago I foolishly turned down Jennie’s offer (ex Tentatrice) of their flue brush when they sold their boat.  At the time I couldn’t think where we’d have stored it on Bonjour, but later on I realised there were a couple of places it would have easily fitted.  And, just like last year, I berated myself for such a stupid decision.  This year, rather than tying a cord round some holly sprigs and pulling them up the chimney, a messy job which has to be repeated, I thought I’d tie them to a pole and use it like a flue brush.  Apart from the fiddly business of getting the baffle plate out of the stove, it should all be pretty straightforward.  Hah!  It may have been fine in principle, but I had failed to appreciate two important points – one, there was nothing to stop the holly sprigs sliding up the pole once I’d started pushing them down the flue, and two, after they’d come off and I’d poked them down as far as they would go, I remembered there was a bend in the flue to stop them dropping out into the stove….  I stuck my arm up the flue from the stove end, getting very sooty in the process, and failing to get more than a couple of them out.  So after a bit of a think I got my secateurs and cut myself a longish but flexible branch of sycamore, from the hedge and eventually managed to push the holly right through and finish the job.  I do like to give my readers the opportunity for a good laugh.

Not very much soot to show for it either

What might Dave have been doing all this time, you might ask?  Well, he was making a good job of painting between the gunwale and the rubbing strake of the starboard side, so now that job has been completed for both sides.

The fire burned beautifully, since you ask, and we had a very cosy evening.

9 miles, 3 locks

 

 

 

 

Slow but sunny drive to Aston marina

Friday 27^th September; Aston marina

We thought we’d be clever and come up today, as yesterday (Thursday) we’d have been driving in heavy rain all the way from Devon.

I couldn't get a photo of the Avon near Tewkesbury - a lorry was in the inside lane - but it had clearly burst its banks yesterday.

So we had a lovely sunny day for the journey, and the M5, which had been closed earlier this morning because of flooding, had re-opened by the time we got there – but it’s Friday so the traffic was awful.  We didn’t arrive till 3, having left home before 10, and we were pretty tired.  Once we’d unpacked, Dave drove off again to the garage on the way into Stone to check something about the tyres and fill up the tank.   As we need to get a pump-out and some diesel before we leave the marina, we'll stay put on our berth for tonight.

Aston marina once more

Monday 2^nd September; Brassworks bridge to Aston marina

Today it was to be a question of dodging the showers as we completed this trip – our 17^th aboard Bonjour.  It was gloomy and damp, with intermittent rain, which promised to get heavier as the morning wore on. 

Gathering swallows, twittering

So instead of our normal practice, which is to get started on the packing and cleaning while still out on a pleasant mooring, we got going straight after breakfast and were already in Aston lock by 9 o’clock.

The interesting little leaflet dispenser at Aston lock.  Now unlocked, and unsurprisingly with no leaflets.

The air was misty and damp as we moored on our pontoon at 9.15.  Bow in, to keep our bags out of the rain, which soon started.  Dave went to pay for our stay and exercise the dog, bringing back a trolley on his return.  They are excellent trolleys here, quite big and easy to manoeuvre which isn’t always the case in marinas!

Goose poo on the pontoon – watch your step!  Luckily this is the cleaner end.

We managed to load the car in the lulls between showers, which got progressively heavier as the morning wore on, and set off home just after one.

The hotel boat’s guests had left after breakfast

Apart from a lengthy diversion around road works near Stafford, a couple of slow crawls on the motorways and some horrible weather, the journey home wasn’t too bad.  Our next trip should take us back down to Droitwich Spa marina, but the route we choose will depend on the weather.  Last year the Severn was in flood, so we had to go via Birmingham and the Tardebigge flight.  What will happen this year?

¾ mile, 1 lock

Trip stats

Waterways: Trent and Mersey canal and the Caldon including the Leek branch.

66 miles 5¾ furlongs, 64 locks, all narrow.  Ivy House and Norton Green lift bridges (both electric) both ways, Hazlehurst aqueduct (twice over, twice under), Leek tunnel both ways, 1¼ furlongs underground.

Nights aboard - 15.  At 7 hours a day (such as when we were hirers, all those years ago) it would have been 6 or 7.

Farewell to Stone

Sunday 1^st September; above Stone locks to past Brassworks bridge

Two boats went by before 7.30, steerers wrapped up against the cool and windy morning.  Then it was quiet, at least till 9.30 as we were preparing to get going….   but by the time we eventually arrived at the top lock a boat was on its way up, so we could go straight in.  There are notices taped to the bottom balance beam at Lime Kiln lock - weather-damaged but still, just, legible..

Oh dear

As I walked off to the next lock I could see how much the beam has sagged.  This made it quite awkward to push without applying weight from above.

How long before it starts to catch on the stonework?

A boat was coming up Newcastle Road lock too, so that was quick, but then we caught up with one at Yard lock. 

The smiling netting at the old Joules Brewery building

The footbridge at the bottom gates is taped off, so everything took longer.  The damage is not obvious, and I wonder how many people have dipped under the tape and used it?  The couple on the boat in front certainly did not.  They were both off the boat, which was a strange-looking small narrowboat with a smelly outboard, and steering was accomplished with a length of scaffold-pole at a steep angle.  I went to help with the bottom gates, and then it was our turn to descend.  A boat had caught us up by now and their crew dealt with the offside bottom gate, saving me the long walk round.  Unable to moor between the locks as we'd hoped - the available space was too short for us - we carried on.  In the grassy area beyond the towpath is a Peace Pole.  There are over a quarter of a million of these around the world, but I’d never heard of them before.  This one was provided by the Quakers.

Yes, if only ....

Thankfully the smelly boat ahead of us was already leaving the lock, and the Black Prince which had been ahead of us down the Meaford flight yesterday was coming in on its way back to Etruria.  The delightful young man crewing looked after the offside bottom gate, with its dog-leg balance beam (so constructed to accommodate the road bridge).  It is not too heavy to open easily, but very hard work to close again!  We pulled in on the 48-hour mooring, shortly before the rubbish bins.  With road repairs going on beyond the houses on the offside, it was noisy for us but must have been awful for the residents.  With a good internet signal we weren't goiong to move just yet - there was a football match that needed watching.  I prepared to start removing the windows and cleaning the algae from the frames.  But it started to rain lightly so I only did the portholes, which don't take long, and the galley full-hopper window, with the sink and counter-top below it.  While Spurs got beaten by Newcastle Jess and I went off for a walk and discovered a large expanse of playing field, ‘riverside walks’ (though the Trent was invisible behind the pestilential Himalayan balsam) and rough grass too.  We moved on after the footy, to the spot past Brassworks bridge where we have moored before.  Dave spent some time sorting out a tricky problem with the broadband and I managed to get another couple of windows properly cleaned before the forecast heavy rain arrived – it caught out several soggy dog walkers, but our cratch cover did not leak.

1½ miles, 4 locks

Oh so slowly to Stone

Saturday 31^st August; Barlaston to Stone (above locks)

Last night was quiet, the only noise coming from boaters returning from the pub as we went to bed.  It was the dog that woke us this moorning, not the geese or the cows.

Slurping their tea – they seem to suck the water up and very noisy it is too!

We were ready to go at our normal time, between 9 and 9.30, but waited for a Black Prince hire boat which came by at the perfect speed to pass moored boats.

The cratch cover is much cleaner than it was, and looks good apart from the pawprints!  Maybe they will wash off in the rain.

Unfortunately, the Black Prince was still creeping along a mere 50 yards ahead as we came round the bend before the pub.  So we pulled in and I popped over the bridge to the shop.  I have always imagined it to be small and scruffy, the way it appears from the canal, but the scruffy bit is not the same business.  The shop is much bigger than it looked from the water, with a good range of bread and pastries, and everything else you might want a village shop to have.  Buying milk and the paper didn’t take long though, and we were soon gaining on the hire boat again, even though we were going barely above tickover.  It was clear that the steerer hadn’t boated before, but luckily the woman with him/her was on the ball, and once through the bridge before Meaford locks she took over, leaving us plenty of room to pass, along with the boat behind us.  Great, we thought, but there were already two boats waiting at Meaford top lock.  I wished I’d made a pot of coffee before we started down, as there were no boats coming up the flight till the third lock.  That boat was local, and moors on the offside by the housing below the bottom lock.  They kept meeting neighbours and stopping to chat while they worked the lock.  Not at all annoying …  It was gone 12.30 by the time we moored above Lime Kiln lock, the top of the Stone flight.

About time too

We will stay here for the rest of the day.  After lunch we all walked down the locks, Dave to entertain Jess in the park and me to get some supplies in M&S.  I walked over the road bridge for a snap of the boat stern welcoming boaters from the south.

The flowers are looked after but some of it needs a bit of work

Dave was waiting outside the Star as I returned to the canal, and I helped him with his pint.  We strolled back in the sunshine, and didn’t do much for the rest of the afternoon, apart from having a cuppa and some nice-looking Eccles cakes from M&S.  They weren’t as good as the ones I got last week in Milton though.

A good day to dry the washing

There were still plenty of boats on the move, though we had noticed most of the green hire boats from Stone were still moored up.  Traffic had more or less stopped, including walkers on the towpath, by about 5.   All except for a small boy, who can only have been 4, driving a rather large electric ‘toy’ car so quickly his Dad (and dog) had to run to keep up.  There is grass between the towpath and the canal, but it was rather alarming from our point of view – it could easily cause damage to a boat, quite apart from the horrifying alternative!

3 miles, 4 locks, 3 engine hours

Leaving Stoke behind

 Friday 30^th August; Westport lake to Barlaston, via Harecastle water point

We wanted to make an earlier start today and for once we managed it, leaving Westport Lake at 8.20.  The sky was blue, the sun brilliant, and the shade cold as we made our way to the winding hole at the south portal of the Harecastle tunnel.  Two boats had passed us a little earlier but were not there waiting, so had clearly gone through.  The fans weren't operating and there was no-one about.  We winded and reversed to fill up the water tank, then wandered about a bit and looked at the information boards.

The original Harecastle tunnel by James Brindley

Within the hour we had finished taking on water and were on our way back.

South portal of the second, larger tunnel designed by Thomas Telford

 

Yesterday we’d spotted this terrace marooned in a sea of new warehouses on one side and demolished desolation on the other.  They are numbered 5, 7, 9 and 11 – I wonder if the even numbers had been facing them, with their backs to the canal.  The remains of a shared chimney is all that’s left to show that number 3 really did exist. 

Westport lake was basking in the morning sun when we passed at 9.40, on schedule for once.

On we went past yesterday’s landmarks.  The new build we spotted on cradles at Stoke Boats had been launched.  Past Festival Park marina, where we started our boat-owning career with a share on Padworth which was moored here for a couple of years.  She was then based at Calcutt, Stockton Top and finally Great Haywood where we left her for Chuffed.  We noticed Chuffed out of the water for blacking, and  expressed an interest before we started our week on Padworth.  The boat we had wanted to view, Corylus, had been sold the day before.  On our return we fell in love the moment we stepped aboard.  She was, and still is, a pretty boat!  Far ahead was a boat entering the top Stoke lock, but by the time we arrived it had long gone.  While we were descending, the crew of a boat coming from the Caldon popped through between the rubbish compound and the buildings while the steerer negotiated the tight turn at the junction.  They had spent the night moored between the winding hole and the staircase, and had found it an uncomfortable experience, with twitchy people wandering around waiting for their dealer, and noise, arguments and activity going on into the small hours.  (Though a boat we met later had been moored close to the service block, and said apart from a few noisy drunks going by they had been ok.)  I went to set the next lock, and she closed the top one up for us.

Leaving Stoke top lock and waiiting while the next one fills

You can see I have tied a red ribbon round my windlass.  I got fed up with hunting round for it in the uncut grass at some locks, as I never leave it on the beam of an open lock – it might get knocked in.  Once down, and with no other boat in sight, I raised a top paddle for the one behind us and on we went.  The middle one was also against us, but after that we started meeting the boats coming up.  At this lock, efforts have been made to smarten the area with a mural and a little tended area.  The cleared brush has been stacked into ‘dead hedges’, where it can decay naturally and provide shelter for wildlife.  One of the stakes that hold it in place provided a handy place to tie the dog too.  There used to be a garage with a handy shop just up the road, but now a hand car wash is in its place.

Not just a pile of rubbish

On past the vast cemetery, and eventually we were down the locks and I could put the kettle on at last.

Resting in peace

Both shooting ranges were busy, pellets splatting into the walls.  The targets must surely be below the level of the high fences, but there is plenty of evidence of people shooting too high….

The dark grey is the side fence, I guess it's metal for safety reasons.  Maybe it should be higher!

The row of little trucks beside the canal provide a handy place to prop your fishing gear and bike, though the bike was ridden away as we passed.  The wheels show they ran on rails but I don’t know what they would have been used for.  They are not very big and qute narrow.

We paused for lunch at Trentham, with its convenient garage shop over the bridge for the paper and some milk, and also a bin to dispose of a bit of plastic sack that had been lurking by one of the locks - the middle one, with the mural exhorting us not to leave plastic about.  Then at last we were mooring at Barlaston, in the sunshine and opposite the cows.  The wind had finally dropped so I could re-proof the cratch cover while avoiding spraydrift.  The recent showers hadn’t caused any leaks, but better safe than sorry as heavy and prolonged rain is bound to happen later in the year.  So I hauled it off and spread it out.  It wasn’t the best place – there was plenty of room so walkers could get by, but the towpath was very dusty and when Jess and a passing dog decided to play they left a line of pawprints as they raced across the cover.  I expect it’ll brush off eventually.  We ate in the Plume of Feathers, keen to find out if the food is as good as it’s reputed to be.  It was, prices reasonable and the portions generous.

Katsu Halloumi with sweet potato fries and quick kimchi, and Rocky Burger and chips with side salad in the background.  We cleared our plates.  The beer was good too, though we didn't have the Neil Morrissey's Blonde.

The evening was somewhat marred by the racket from a large party of good-humoured but raucous revellers nearby.  The acoustics in the bar area are terrible, and with their merriment echoing around we often couldn’t hear each other speak.  If we came again, we would consider leaving the dog on the boat and sitting in one of the carpeted areas.

Back at the boat the noise continued, this time from a large flock of Canada geese grazing on the field and disporting themselves in the water.  Hope they aren’t early risers!

10 miles, 6 locks