Going against the flow

It's not always a bad thing to be going in the opposite direction to everyone else. We set off at half seven today and found Trentham Lock full with the top gate open. However, there was no-one in sight, so Sheila closed up and worked us through. Then followed the long pound through Trentham and across the nondescript area of greenery to Stoke proper, which starts a bit after the Britannia Stadium and the waste incinerator.

Next comes the Dolphin boatyard, advertising chandlery, air guns, fishing tacle (sic), archery and line dancing. There are a lot of ageing GRP cruisers there and I often wonder if the whole thing has slipped through a spacetime wormhole from the Louisiana swamp lands.

Finally, we arrived at Stoke Bottom to find a boat about to emerge. It was then like that all the way up, a steady procession of boats coming the other way. When we got to the top, there were four boats queuing plus another emerging from the Caldon to join them.

Soon we were tied on the Festival Park moorings. After a coffee, we walked to Sainsbury's for some perishable supplies, including one of their excellent whole grain loaves.

The weather's turned a bit soggy; indeed there was a touch of Autumn in the air this morning. Like the man from Stratford said, Summer's lease has all too short a date.

We've spent the afternoon on the computers and iPads catching up with various jobs. It's probably going to be wet tomorrow, but we'll slog on through Harecastle and onto the Macc at last. It's Sheila's turn to steer, but I will work all the locks...

That'll be Hall Green, one of just four functioning stop locks on the system.