Wending to Wales: Day 7

A beautiful sunny and warm day from start to finish.  We set off at 8am, through Whittington and out into the countryside.

We passed Huddlesford Junction and Streethay Wharf, and then the section along by the A38.  On the approach to Fradley Junction there’s an enormous new housing estate on the former airfield.  As we approached the junction, a boat pulled off the water point and its crew swung the bridge.  Adrian jumped off to close it, but it turned out the boat in front was just turning around.  When he was out of my way, I quickly turned left onto the Trent and Mersey, so I was no longer in his way.

Adrian walked up to the Middle Lock, which was full and with the top gate open.  But as nothing appeared to be coming down the lock above, he turned it and I went in.

As we rose, a boat was coming down the lock above at last, so we conveniently swapped locks.  At Woodend Lock a boat was about to come out, and there were four boats waiting above, so there were numerous people to do things.  We carried on through the woods, then at Handsacre there’s a willow tree which has a boat-shaped hole in its branches.

Armitage is always a trial because if all the narrow bits, including next to the Armitage Shanks factory.

There were pallets of loos piled up in the yard.  At the Armitage Tunnel, Adrian got off to check the route was clear, as it’s only a boat wide.  The first part is still a tunnel because of a road going over, but after that it’s been opened up.  It’s still impressive that they cut through all the rock though.

We had lunch on the move as we approached Rugeley, then stopped for shopping.  We had the pick of moorings as there was almost no-one there, and a big Tesco is just by the canal.  We did a big shop, as the fridge had become almost completely empty.  It was 2pm when we set off again — me getting us under way while Adrian stowed all the shopping.  It’s quite a long way, through pleasant countryside and woods, to the next lock at Colwich, which is one of my favourites; I just think it’s a contender for the Prettiest Lock award.

There was loads of mooring space along by Shugborough Hall, but we carried on up Haywood Lock.  There was a space or two above too, but we’d decided to try our luck at Tixall Wide, so turned under the junction bridge, once a Viking hire boat had made it onto the water point.

We noted a possible space just before the proper wide bit of the wide, but as it turned out our timing was impeccable.  A boat appeared to have just turned around in the wide, and we assume he’d just left a space which was plenty big enough for us.  We looked a little further on, as we do like the view of the gatehouse, but there was nothing so we swung around (taking a photo of the gate house on the way), and slotted into the space.

Since we tied up, at about 4.30pm, a couple more boats have gone past and I guess at least one of them was disappointed at not finding a space at all.  Just the other day we were thinking about this mooring, because back in 2017 we came here to join Marilyn and David, and Jaq, who’d saved us enough space, and we had a great evening together.

19 miles, 5 locks.  (95 miles, 42 locks)