This is Steve & Viv Carter's log of the trips and travails on the narrowboat Adagio – liveaboards from October 2015. Then back to the shore, in Trefin, Wales from November 2019. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)” narrowboatadagio@gmail.com cranog5@gmail.com
Stoned
Perhaps, just perhaps, our favourite stop is the town of Stone. Decent, quiet and all so convenient moorings. Convenient for shops, water, refuse, pubs, shops, pubs . . . Chance for a good stop. A few days of rest and recuperation and beer. And a new shop – a mirage perhaps? No, it’s a real M&S foodhall, right by the canal. Yes, we’ll stop here for a bit of R&R.
You get a lot of wildlife on the canalA view of the bar in the Plume – a good range of beersAnd then, the open road . . . .Meadowsweet . . used… to flavour mead and to strew on the floors, plus the first herb to give us aspirin, used to treat fevers . . and a lot more see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipendula_ulmariaGoing down the Measham locksSome very sweet locks . . . Toby’s happyGoing down . . . And welcome to Stone . . . the birthplace of the Trent & Mersey canalthe final locks down to StoneBest moorings are past all the locks and then some . . .And another welcome to Stone – the usual CRT overflowing waste binsAh, many a pound spent here – that M&S foodhall, just past the last lockCentre of townQuite a few more closed down shops and the Co-op has gone . . .A photo of the rush hour . . reminds us of why we’re on our boat! I haven’t driven a car for over 3 months! Viv & dog wait patiently . . . I thought we were going to the pub?Ah, our target for today, the Royal Exchange, a Titanic brewery pub. Not perhaps the best icon for boaters and I had a pint of Iceberg beer!
A great welcome. A great variety of beer – very dog friendly pub.