Macc seemed much better this morning; he slept through until 6, and then went back to bed for an hour. He’s on a diet of boiled chicken and plain white rice. For his morning walk, I took him down past the lock to Bridge 72a, across the canal, and under the railway line.
There are some woods on the other side, with signs saying it’s National Trust land. Then there’s a path up a hill with a gate at the top into a field. Here Macc could go off the lead.
At the top of the hill there are views across the valley to one of the Shugborough follys.
We walked a loop, returning next to the railway line and back down through the woods. As we returned to the boat, there were already boats on the move. We had porridge for breakfast as it was pretty chilly, and then set off at about 9. Adrian went to the junction to make sure nothing was coming, while I turned the boat under the bridge and onto the Staffs and Worcester.
Adrian took a photo directly into the sun, so he couldn’t see what he was doing — but it came out rather well!
Through the junction is the Anglo Welsh yard, a narrow, and then the aqueduct over the River Trent.
One boat coming the other way waited for us to cross, then there was another behind that, and a third arrived before we got to the next bridge. Then there was another boat just the other side of the bridge, so everyone seemed to leave Tixall Wide at the same time. Coming our way, you get a good view of the Tixall Gatehouse, and then the wide opens up.
There were plenty of mooring spaces here — perhaps not surprising given the number of boats we’d already seen. Tixall Lock always seems further away than it should be. It was empty so we just had to open the gates and go in. The cottage alongside is surprisingly narrow.
The second aqueduct of the day saw us crossing the River Sow, which joins the Trent by Shugborough Hall.
This is new water for KV, although she has done the other end of the Staffs and Worcs. We couldn’t come this way in the spring because of the culvert collapse at Penkridge. We’ve been this way plenty of times though, and some things never change. For example, it seems Mark is yet to find a partner.
On the outskirts of Stafford is the Stafford Riverway Link project, which is building a lock down onto the river to restore the waterway into the town. I was expecting more to have been done if I’m honest — the whole site looked pretty much the same as when we last came this way.
Stafford Boat Club always looks smart. It must have some of the best facilities of any club of this sort.
Moored on the outside was an early Braidbar boat that looked recently painted, and by Andy Russell. I realised it had no red on it — and recalled that when Andy did our sign writing, he told us that his next boat painting customers had liked our scheme so much they’d decided not to have any red either. I looked back on Andy’s photos on Facebook, and sure enough this boat was painted a short while after KV.
Round the corner is Deptmore Lock, which was also empty ready for us. It’s a deep one at more than 10ft.
We moored up just beyond the lock in a spot we’ve used before. There’s a nice view and the M6 isn’t yet too close. It also has very little footfall on the towpath, which is good for Macc — he doesn’t have to keep checking on passing dogs as there aren’t any. After lunch, he had a play on the lock side with a Jack Russell whose boat was coming up, and then plenty of time off the lead as we walked the towpath. I’ve also cleaned the inside of the Refleks stove, as we seemed to have a diesel supply problem caused by a bit of soot inside.
6 miles, 2 locks. (283 miles, 182 locks)