Down through Stoke

I said yesterday that today’s run was the usual one for this route for us, with the exception that we were starting from Westport Lake rather than Etruria, 45 minutes further on. Nonetheless, it’s still a fairly long run by our standards, around 3.5 hours and I set off just after eight. We reached Etruria top at nine and took 40 minutes to descend the Stoke locks, all of which were with us.

There’s then the steady run at a decent speed through the rest of Stoke and on to Trentham, slowing only for the occasional narrows or bridge hole and the moored boats alongside the place that advertises “Tacle and Bait, Airguns, Archery, Country and Western Line Dancing” and a 10 metre shooting gallery.

The cut was quite quiet with just a handful of boats coming the other way. By not long after eleven we were working down Trentham lock and on our way to a mooring at Barlaston. I noticed that the 48 hour mooring restriction totems have gone from the Wedgwood moorings, though whether that’s deliberate by CRT or not is another matter, of course.

We’ve had a quiet afternoon – Sally in particular is feeling very worn out after all this locking supervision.

Tomorrow, merrily on to the top of Stone, so just the Meaford four to work in a truly short day’s cruise.

Location:Barlaston

Sunny in Stoke

Usually we console ourselves, locking down through Stoke in the rain, that we're not missing very much, but it was actually quite pleasant today in the sunshine. We managed an early start, as I'd woken early and made the tea at half five. This meant that we were on our way just after seven.

It was my turn to lock and I had a fairly easy trip of it, the first three locks being full or nearly so. I had to turn the last couple in Stoke itself, but a boat turned up as the last one was filling so I didn't have to close up after we'd got down.

There followed the pleasant run out of town, past the Dolphin boatyard/fishing tackle/air gun/archery/C&W Line Dance store that I've written about before. There follows the Incinerator with the A50 crossing, the Britannia Stadium, the massive warehouse and the open country (for the moment) to Trentham. A boat was emerging from Trentham Lock as we arrived, so that I didn't even have to get off before we were in the lock.

Once down, I walked round the corner to the Wedgwood moorings. Elusive, who had been on the Etruria mooring when we arrived yesterday, was already there, but no-one else. We're on the very beginning, out in the open in the sun, though some strangely Spring-like rain has been coming and going this afternoon.

It didn't start until we were back from a quick geocaching trip. It's ages since we did any, so we picked a nice simple looking one for starters and found it without too much trouble. The second one was in a field behind the village. We were put off by Private Land signs on the gates and a lack of a stile into the field, so we chickened out.

No matter, it made a nice change to just be walking for the sake of it again, a measure of how much Sheila's feet have improved since her ops. We've been resting quietly in the boat since, sometimes out on the bow in the sun, sometimes hiding inside from the rain.

It'll be a lazy start tomorrow as we're only popping down the Meaford Locks to tie at the top of Stone and do a bit more shopping in one of our favourite towns.

North to Westport

In the end, we didn't go to the pub, sorry Jo! We were just too weary to stir out after dinner. It looks very smart from outside, and the entries in the BOG Pub Guide are positive.

It was a lazier start this morning as we only had about four hours to do to Westport. We were locking up Trentham at five to eight and had a good run along the pound into Stoke. It's both deep and wide, one of the few canal sections (as opposed to canalised river) where you can break the 4mph speed limit in Sanity Again.

I took the opportunity to make another batch of bread dough as we went along.

Elanor, Sally and I made short work of lock wheeling up Stoke. It helped that all the locks were with us and we had another fast run along the top pound past/through the site of Shelton steelworks. The moorings at the lake were quite busy, but we found a slot all right. Later on a three boat school cruise left and there was more choice.

We took a walk round the lake after lunch and checked out the little known sanitary facility in the base of the visitor centre. It's in the wall that faces the canal, opens with a BWB key and contains a disabled toilet and shower and an Elsan sluice. It's kept clean by the local council and doesn't appear on any of the guides.

It will be another relaxed start tomorrow, with only twenty minutes or so to the tunnel which doesn't open until eight o'clock.

On deeper waters

We managed the early start properly this morning, getting away just after seven with the aim of reaching Etruria by lunchtime if we could. It was Sheila's turn to steer, so I was able to get on with chores down below once we were underway. I made a batch of bread dough, put a yoghurt on and generally tidied up. It was a glorious day, classic early Autumn with a cool bright sun, though by the time we reached Kidsgrove there was a lot of mist and I was needed on the bow as look out.

It all cleared away as quickly as it came, so that when we got to the junction it was all gone. Sheila made a smooth exit from the Macc onto the Trent and Mersey and headed for the tunnel. The boats from the first northbound passage were just emerging and a solitary boat was waiting to go in. The tunnel keeper recognised us from earlier in the year (apparently the boat name is quite memorable, no idea why) and ran quickly through his safety briefing.

Sheila swung us round into the tunnel and I went back below to knock back and shape up the dough and do the washing up, now that the engine had given us a calorifier full of hot water. We took just over 35 minutes for the passage, emerging at half ten. There followed a superb run along the deep top pound through northern Stoke. I just managed to get the buns baked before we tied, though Sheila had to be left holding the boat on the centreline at one point whilst I took them out of the oven. We've tied on the towpath just short of the Toby Carvery at Etruria.

We've had a very lazy relaxed afternoon, sitting in the boat in the sun and pottering about with reading, doing puzzles, crochet and catching up with some IT jobs on the Mac Mini.

Chicken gumbo tonight and on to Stone Top in the morning.

Sunny Stoke

It normally rains when we traverse Stoke, but today it has been pleasantly sunny, though cool to start with. As we want to go on to the Little Morton Hall moorings tomorrow, a bit further than we normally would after passing through Harecastle, we've come on to Westport Lake rather than stopping at Etruria. In view of the longish run, we made a start at seven, Sheila steering and your present interlocutor locking, washing up, starting the washing machine and printing out the Saturday Independent Giant General Knowledge Crossword.

Never let it be said that our lifestyle is entirely indolent. My good luck in the matter of the locks continued, with all six being either with us or containing boats locking down when we got there. Indeed, the cut was quite busy by the time we got to the centre of Stoke and started up the locks. All went very smoothly until we got to the top, where I had to explain to the young man off the boat waiting to come down that the reason the lock wasn't completely filling was that one of the bottom paddles was still a few inches up.

It's a good job that there's plenty of water in the summit pound after Friday's rain, he'd been there for some time, pushing the top gate balance beam to no avail.

We would have been able to tie in front of the Toby Carvery at Etruria had we wished and there was a great deal of room at Westport when we got here, though it's filled up a bit now, naturally. We've had a walk round the lake, a chat with the chuggers (one for Staffs Wildlife Trust and one for Friends of CRT) and generally had a relaxing afternoon, though the crossword wasn't very fulfilling. Too many rock bands, obscure sportsmen and the like.

Though I did get the very first clue straight off: "Whimsical four line biographical poem invented by E C Bentley (8)". An example would be

Sir Christopher Wren

Said "I am going to dine with some men

If anyone calls

Say I'm designing St Paul's."

Answer here.