Staff & Worcs.

It rained all evening and night but we were greeted by blue sky and sunshine this morning. What would us Brits talk about if we had "normal" weather ?

We got to Great Haywood in time for lunch (beans on toast.........we know how to live )and turned onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal ( Staff and Worcs for short ) to undertake the Stourport Ring. We are in no rush to get home and this fills the gap admirably, we think. Weather permitting, of course.

They appear to have the same maintenance regime as the Macclesfield, the actual footpath is unmade but the jungle between it and the canal is identical. The canal is generally very wide but mooring is  rare, as are locks. The scenery is agricultural but pleasant.

An exciting and rare event happened this afternoon. A BITTERN showed itself when it took off from reeds on the canal and landed in some nearby marshland. It is the first Bittern I have ever seen, a large and very, very rare member of the heron family with fabulous speckled wing feathers. I consider myself very priveledged to have seen one. Excited, or what?

Back to the weather: it became very windy and cold during the afternoon. We moored opposite a hotel/restaurant in Acton Trussell.

Stone Trent & Mersey

We had a brilliant Italian meal in La Dolce Vita with two new boating friends, unfortunately followed by a hypo. The moral of the story being not to underestimate the carbs in Italian dishes.

This morning was sunny and pleasant again, prompting a leisurely cruise through Stone to one of our famous "middle of nowhere" mooring spots further south on the Trent and Mersey. Considering where we are it was great to find mooring rings ready for us to use, one major plus point of this canal.

Potteries

Having sensibly suggested Stoke can solve our"housing crisis" by converting defunct industrial buildings into desireable flats and vast acres of wasteland into a new town/city/community, without adversely affecting wildlife,farmers or us, the general public. I suggest this new development, South of Stoke, is named Potteries, and includes a shopping centre, a swimming pool and any other facility required. The area already has good transport links by train, bus, car and boat, what more could you want?

We are back to shorts,tee shirts and sandals today, courtesy of warm sunshine. Lynne has fully recovered from the shock of falling in but shows no lasting affects ( physically ).

The day started warm and sunny but dropped a few degrees by lunchtime, after which we tackled 5 locks and cruised as far as Stone, a fairly nondescript medium sized town with character.

Stoke. T & M

We were both extremely sad to leave the Macclesfield as we both loved it. With the exception of the jungle betwixt canal and towpath it has everything a boater could wish for ( more water would also be nice ).

However, joining the Trent & Mersey heading for Stoke in warm sunshine I was revisiting (softening) my earlier tough opinions of it. The services at Etruria were immaculate again and the Harecastle tunnel "keeper" as helpful as ever, especially when Lynne fell off the side of Tardis up to her knees and he helped me haul her aboard again and offered to call an ambulance (declined). 

The tunnel adventure went well and coming into Stoke from that direction offers a positive impression of the place, but unfortunately it's all downhill from there. The decrepid old, unused and unloved mills and warehouses unavoidably loom into view, as do acres of brown field sites. Both offer the obvious solution to Britain's current housing crisis without sacrificing good agricultural land or ruining landscapes.  

Trying to find a mooring place proved almost impossible as no rings or metalwork  seem to exist and pins only enter the grass banks about 3 inches before hitting something solid.

We're down

As I start writing we are sitting below the Bosely flight of 12 locks in pouring rain,eating our lunch over 110 ft lower than when we started our journey but only a mile onwards.

We preferred the weather at the higher altitude, but I'm not complaining, honest. The locks were busy with a steady stream of boats heading up and down, which is good news as it halves the workload and doubles the available crew size. Having said that, it is still exhausting work, but completing the job gives a tremendous sense of achievement.

We have moored in the dry near watery Lane aqueduct, one of five encountered today.

The above new-build "old warehouse" in Congleton would give Stoke decision makers pause for thought with regard to their real historic warehouses currently crumbling into extinction.

We are about 1 hr away from leaving the Macclesfield and rejoining the Trent and Mersey canal.

Lucan search

Beautiful sunshine heralded our return to Joel's car at the Olde Kings Head. The sunshine also highlighted the immaculately clean chrome mushroom vents and boat roof. Joel polished the vents and washed the roof far better than I could have done and in half the time.Joel returned home mid-afternoon and we began our trip South at the same time. CORRECTION: we remained in the Olde kings Head with an eclectic mix of Dr. Who characters until late afternoon before staggering back to the boat where we re-thought our plans and delayed our departure till the morning, bearing in mind we have lots of locks to negotiate. ( best done sober ).

Bollington and around

We had a leisurely start in bright sunshine. The plan was to give Joel a trip on Tardis Two whilst delivering a prescription to a chemist for me.

We set off to the nearest winding hole in the direction we were facing, which was hidden by a scrubby tree and was small. In short, we missed it and needed to reverse a considerable distance before struggling to turn, and set off for a chemist in Bollington, taking on water and emptying the oblutions en-route. As we had agreed to drop Joel off at his car by midday tomorrow we turned at a winding hole calculated to get us back in time (after mooring overnight in the middle of nowhere  on the Macclesfield canal.)

 

Hovis mill. Now flats and offices