Seem to have got a bit behind. We left Hack Green on Tuesday and chugged the few miles on to Nantwich, through the Hack Green two locks and moored at pretty much the first spot on the huge embankment. Off shopping, trolley bag in tow plus dog. Clewlows for bacon, cheese (Nantwich Blue!) and pies. Then a stop in the Gin shop and a final pause at the BeerDock for a pint and a chance to eat the pies.
Month: May 2019
Onwards thru Audlem
Up early and off by 0730 – it’s going to get hot and we’ve 13 locks to do, so we choose to finish these before the heat of the day. Unfortunately for us, the last boat down last night was Becky and he left ALL the bottom gates open! This would have been a right pain as we would then have to close both gates and then fill the lock. But serendipitously, a local chap (moored on the permie mooring below) was out for his morning walk and he offered to close em all and prepare each lock for us! Magic!
Quite a quick descent – helped mainly by Alan. Just a short cruise now, past Overwater marina and on to moor near the Coole Pilate Halt (csd 1963) where there’s nice moorings and even picnic tables.
Day 38 – things on sticks
It actually looks a bit like Summer. We thought we’d move off before Monday as the floating market traders should be packing and going then. Meanwhile, we had some morning visitors…
Market Drayton
Got a bit bored and it was a bit shallow here – the boat bumps and the wee doggie da nae like it! And with the forecast of rain coming we pushed on just a short distance to Goldstone Wharf – managed to get in, just. This would mean our cruising time on the wet day was short.
👋 Big wave to all our readers! New hello to Tim & Heather 👋
The next day saw us chugging through Woodseaves Cutting – again our Mr Telford had got his navvies to cut thru the sandstone – this is an infamous couple of miles, shallow & narrow with the sides sometimes reaching 100 feet.
Well, that was the wet Thursday which lead to an even wetter Friday. Steve cycled to Morrisons to shop – inspired to make his own Jambalaya! Saturday & Sunday sees the Floating Market come to town – a dozen or so trading boats display their bunting and wares . . .
The day was rounded off with a swim in the river for Toby and a “wet” for us two, back in the Red Lion – to try their seasonal keg beer IPA! Nice. Off tomorrow . . . heading for Audlem and lots of locks.
Somewhere Quiet – Bridge 47
Rain’s coming Wednesday, so time to move on. There was a big Canal Festival at Norbury over the weekend, so we’ve waited until that was over first.
A Little Stroll
Toby hasn’t had much in the way of walks – not long walks, anyway. So, it being Bank Holiday Monday, we thought we’d avoid the town & crowds and head off down the disused Stafford-Shrewsbury railway. This was a bit boring, well, it was a long and mainly very straight path but we met a local who suggested a detour – a loop around the Windmill hill.
Day 32 – Gnosall
Had our fill of Wheaton Aston – pubs with mediocre beer – one that let dogs in but didn’t open until the afternoon and didn’t do food and t’other that did do food but was dog unfriendly. And it rained and it was cold! Fire back on then. Time to move on. There’s a big canal festival at Norbury, so we’ll avoid that – there’s no moorings as they are all taken up by trading boats. Two hours to Gnosall – a good spot (see blog passim) with a good micro pub and a water point.
Steve often gets into his Victor Meldrew mode when he sees yet another No Name boat! So here’s the CRT official terms & conditions that we boaters all signed up to when licencing our boats – updated April 2019
Probably off tomorrow, Tuesday – beyond Norbury and to Black Flat bridge – a good spot (see blog 2 years ago – first time we saw Neville on the Bond boat)
Day 28 – Kingfishers
Did we stay at this nice quiet and rural spot? No. There was a bird scarer nearby and it made quite a bang – Toby no like. So we pushed on to Brewood. But this was a bit dark and nowhere nice to moor, so we pushed on again to Wheaton Ashton (2 pubs, shops, Indian and cheap diesel).
Into the Shroppie
We could have stayed put but it looked a bit grey and there was rain forecast, so we fired up the Isuzu and cruised the last bit of the Staff & Worcs canal to Autherley junction and into the Shroppie. On the way we went through the Pendeford Rockin – a weird narrow & shallow bit where James Bridley had to get his navvies to cut the canal through rock. As luck would have it the gas ran out just as Steve was making some tea and so we called in at the boat yard (Napton Boats, Autherley jn) and a very nice chap, James wheeled out a new gas cylinder plus Viv bought a duffel coat! She just needs a red hat to complete the Paddington Bear look.
Day 27?
Oops. Getting too narrowboaty. Forgetting to do the blog or even recall what day it is. This is one reason for doing all this – so that when we are in our dotage (or more in our dotage . . ), we can use it to recall things. For example we met up with nb Rosie – I didn’t remember the boat or the people until Viv said, you know, they were the boat we teamed up with to enter Liverpool docks – the nice Welsh couple! And yes, I do now. Chris & Lesley, continuous cruisers for some 16 years, there’s lovely! It was great to see them again and have a natter. So, where are we? And where have we been ? Well, down by there and now, down by ‘ere!
With the thought of not mooring close to the M6, we pressed on through 5 locks to Penkridge. Lots of interesting shops here, including a big Co-op. Big on the outside but oddly small in its offering inside.
We had planned to stay here but fancied moving on – an afternoon cruise. So we chugged on the next five locks (still going uphill) for a few hours, again, avoiding mooring too near the M6 or any form of habitation – we like it quiet.