Monday 4 June: Back to Annie
after a successful Lions weekend
John delivered flower planters back to six local schools, together
with award certificates and small thank you boxes of chocs for the
young gardeners and their supervisors, after our Lions-run Market
Rasen Gardeners Fayre. After visiting cuz Karen & Andrew for
haircuts, we got bags in car and off finally at 12.30. Visiting
mum-in-law Flo for soup and pate on toast on the way, we eventually
reached our mooring: The old sat nav needs updating, so Love Lane,
Rugeley, took us to the Tesco car park, next door. You need to go
out, turn left and left again into Leather Mill Lane to reach the
moorings now. Once unloaded, we found a quiet road nearby, Kings
Road, to leave the car. The solar panels seemed to have done their
stuff: The batteries were 100% with the fridge working :)
Salmon for tea and a quiet night in.
John is trying life without painkillers.
Tuesday 5 June: Rugeley to Great
Haywood (5 miles, 1 lock)
Up early, walked to Morrisons via Costa at 8am! Visited Wilko and
Tesco to get Liana her quiz books – no joy :(
We idled along, admiring the Rugeley gardens, crossed the Trent
aqueduct and reached Colwich Lock, finding ourselves fifth in the
queue! Odd, considering we hadn't seen a boat moving! Chilling and
chatting made time pass pleasantly. Entering the lock, the engine
coughed, spluttered and wouldn't switch off – odd! Reversing the
gear seemed to clear it. John checked the propeller shaft, which was
clear.
We reached Shugborough at 2pm, moored below the lock and walked to
see the Hall and gardens. The Hall was open, so we learned all about
Admiral George Anson, who voyaged around the World and gained a
fortune (£100 million in today's money) in Spanish gold, and his
brother, aesthete Thomas, who was also well travelled and spent the
money on the estate! We enjoyed the visit. The rhubarb and sausage
roll was interesting in the coffee shop. Fajitas for tea, follwed by
Springwatch life and death on tv.
Wednesday 6 June: Great Haywood
to Stone ( 9.5 miles, 5 locks)
Liana counted seventeen boats moored overnight, with most moving on
today. It was one up, one down at Great Haywood Lock. Boaters were
mostly helpful, cheery and chatty. John emptied five loo cassettes at
the services Elsan by the Anglo Welsh office at the junction. Liana
had an odd fellow who insisted waiting for us to move, staring
daggers, when his boat was in a spot behind us, and could move ahead
of us. Nowt as strange as folk!
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| Great Haywood junction - services on right |
It was a lovely day, and we took our time, waiting our turn at locks,
occasionally being lucky and arriving at the right time to go
straight in to the lock chamber.
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| do you recognise these ducks? |
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| ornate stone bridge for the Gentry |
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| deep lock |
Reaching Stone, we winded just
before the Stone Town Lock, moored and walked into town. We visited
charity shops and the Dunoon Pottery Shop, a favourite of ours, and
resisted buying any mugs. A pint for John went down well at the Star,
as did coffee for Liana, but the lock outside was quiet.
Thursday 7 June: Stone to Tixall
Wide (10 miles, 4 locks)
A beautiful morning – the sun had charged the batteries right up
when we got up. We decided to walk into Stone, buy a coffee and get a
bit of shopping before heading South. We resisted Dunoon pottery
again and helped at the lock, had lunch and set off.
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| Aston Marina |
The weather was
fantastic and we enjoyed our cruise. We just took it steady and
arrived at Tixall about 5.15pm. After spag bog for tea, we T cut one
side of the boat, using microfibre clothes to finish off. It looks
better, but we do need a repaint.
Friday 8 June: Tixall Wide to
Penkridge (8.5 miles, 6 locks)
From the quiet of Tixall, we journeyed uphill through Tixall Lock and
across the Sow Aqueduct, up the Sow and later Penk valleys,
southwards. Lots of twists and turns, lots of boats met in bridge
holes and on corners, all sorted out pleasantly. We were not
hurrying, following a distance behind another boat, and enjoyed the
sunny landscape unfolding before us.
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| sheep shearing! |
The deepish locks come every
couple of miles here, but we crossed over with other boats at
several, allowing plenty of conversation. We were ready to stop just
past the services above the lock by the Boat, and found a place,
thankfully. John got down and dirty in his overalls. Using a chain
wrench, he loosened the stern gland fittings and dug out the old
stern gland packing, what was left of it: It had been dripping badly,
recently. Cutting the new greasy packing into three pieces which just
fit around the propeller shaft, he had to hammer each flat and
shorten it to get them in! Once in and tightened, there wasn't a
drip! For a change, we had well deserved and rather nice burgers at
the Boat, then returned to Annie to rest and read.
David Suchet (supporter of the Lichfield & Hatherton Canal
restoration) was Poirot on the Blue Train, which we enjoyed on tv.
Saturday 9 June: Penkridge to the
Round House at Gailey and the Anchor moorings at Coven (6.5 miles, 6
locks)
If you walk west past the Boat on the Cannock Road half a mile
through the town centre and turn right at the main road, you will
find the large Saturday Market. This has loads of clothes and plants,
plus tools, food, meat and fruit stalls: Well worth a visit. John
bought some wonderful huge Peterhead Kippers from the fish man, full
of bonhomie; microfibre clothes for Annie's paintwork; plus fruit and
pliers. From Penkridge, we continued past Otherton Haven and the M6,
up six locks in the sun to Gailey, where we stopped opposite JD
Boats, whose breasted up boats left barely enough room to get past on
this narrow bit of canal when people used the visitor moorings –
less than thoughtful, we felt.
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| Otherton Marina |
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| leaving Gailey |
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| Hatherton Marina |
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| Calf Heath Marina - the Hatherton Canal |
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| event at Calf Heath |
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| poppies |
It was lovely to speak to Eileen at the Round House shop. John bought
new editions of Pearsons canal guides for Welsh Waters and the
Leicester Line & River Nene (the Nene is newly included), plus
some lovely little canal books from the well-stocked shelves. Her
garden looked beautiful, too.
The countryside was also scenic in the sunshine, pleasant despite us
skirting railway and M6 at times as we motored along the long pound
southwards. John checked the packing wasn't making the stern gland
overheat, at one of the locks. No Kingfishers were seen, but plenty
of heron and other wildfowl. John felt like a pint, so we stopped at
the Anchor at Coven about fourish. The stern gland was still cool, so
all was well there. The Anchor is now a decent Vintage Inns pub with
reasonable food, but we finished off the spag bog on Annie, drank
wine,read and watched Canal Journeys in Ireland.
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