Regained.

We managed to get to a pub with Sky TV  to watch the cricket today. Arriving before lunch on the third day proved too late for the woeful Aussies as the match was over, hey ho, now we can explore Kinver this afternoon. 

Today we did five locks, it always makes me think when we are in one just how much water these gates are holding back and if they fail then .....

This is a modern one, though it doesn't look new. 

It has been a short cruise today and it is lovely to be sat out in the sun. We have seen far too little of it this week but perhaps rain is better than sun stroke. 

We passed through Stewpony and the final junction on this canal. 

And avoided the locks up to Merry Hell shopping centre. 

The visitor moorings at Kinver are quite full, but we do think that most do not stick to the 24 hour rule. 

We are quite happy with where we found however as it is right next to the picnic area. And there in time for lunch. 

Down the Bratch

Today was another easier paced day. Our new water heater gave us a warning that the gas cylinder needs changing, but then the new cooker happily boiled the kettle. Hmm. We will have to change a cylinder soon, another first for us. 

At today's first lock, the bridge was done in an ornamental style, we are not sure why but it does look nice. 

We had decided to take off the chimney today and we're really pleased as some of the bridges would have removed it if we didn't. It is worrying when it is on the canal side of the boat as any slip would be either a quick bath or a lost chimney, but so far so good. 

Next it was the Bratch locks with their lovely toll house and friendly lock keeper. 

There are three locks, each separated by three feet. Therefore you cannot pass and have to do all three before a boat can come the other way. 

The instructions are quite complicated, we sought regular reassurance before doing anything. 

Colour coded padels help. 

We were successful traversing the locks and were making good progress towards Sainsburys when we passed the candy boat. 

There was a mutiny in the crew and I was forced to stop. 

We also did a staircase lock today, which was interesting and luckily nobody was coming the other way so we didn't feel under pressure when doing it. 

Finally we arrived at our mooring point. This picture doesn't do it justice, the sign on the left says the start of the visitor moorings, yet there are boats moored across on the offside so you cannot moor as the canal would not be passable. As you can see we moored further down but visitor moorings are there for a reason and should be respected 

We are now at The Navigation, which is by the lock where we first met Martin and Margaret on Erin Mae. 

Happy memories. 

60 all out? I don't believe it.

Today was dominated by checking the cricket score and pinching ourselves. 

We set of at 8:10 with a mission of a day but again found that the locks all had queues. 

The crew were willing to help and so on we went. 

We did it have a mooring in mind for tonight, we had just planned to moor up at 4:00 ish wherever we ended up. 

We passed three junctions today. 

This is approaching Hatherton. 

Hopefully it will get restored all the way to Lichfield. 

Then came Autherley and the turn to the Shripshire Union canal. 

And the Aldersley junction and the 21 lock flight up to Wolverhampton. 

Unfortunately the cricket had occupied my conscious mind and I happily told passing boaters the score 

I totally forgot to check the bilge and when I remembered we were flooded. 

Emergency stop and lots of greasy mucking out and use of sponge ensued. 

Hey ho, it was before lunch and England were batting. 

The bridges were low as warned in the canal guides 

But by luck and judgements we coped. 

The bilges were filling quite quickly so we stopped to adjust the nuts on the stern gland. They seemed quite loose but after adjustment the propeller shat got quite warm. We are not sure which is best. 

And then when the engine is at low revs both the battery warning light and the temperature warning light have a dull glow. They go off at cruising revs. Is this a problem or normal. 

We will monitor on this trip and ask Gordon the Guru at the Marina. 

More haste less speed.

A year ago we bought our cheese wedding cake from Wycherleys who have a stall on Penkridge market. 

So a great opportunity today to go to see them and buy some more excellent cheese. 

The only problem was that the market closed at three o clock and we are 6 to 7 hours away according to the very flowery Pearsons guide. 

We managed to set sail at 8:10 and made it through our last lock on the Trent and Mersey and successfully made the turn on to the Stafford and Worcester Canal.  

First place of interest was Tixall Wide. The canal becomes a lake at this point. 

The gatehouse is the only part of the original Hall that is left. 

With cheese time quite limited we pressed on, but at every lock we had the same three boats in front of us and suffered delays at each one. 

We were just in time to make the last 30 minutes of the market at the last lock before Penkridge when the boat I front of us jammed a fender on the way in and was well and truly stuck. The skipper of this craft had cleaned his roof this morning and was reluctant to walk along it up free the fender. 

In our haste I volunteered to climb down the lock ladder at this deep lock, free the fender and then ascend Dibnah style afterwards. It worked, we got through, moored in record time and have purchased cheese and wine for tonight. 

At Penkridge we found another horse tunnel. 

A park for the children 

And a place to recover from the stresses of the day. 

We are still smiling, and in those moments when we find that we aren't, all we need to do is say "cheese". 

Cut to the Chase

Last night we managed our first alfresco meal. It was fantastic to be able to eat at the side of the canal.

We just sat and chatted until we saw a brilliant sunset and most of the wine had been drunk. 

Today we decided to stay put and instead of spending time on the cut we went off to Cannock Chase which is right on our doorstep. 

Gracie had been here on a school trip and was delighted to get the chance to go again. 

We totally failed to follow the map I had spent ages downloading on my iPhone and got a bit lost. This did not dampen the spirits and there were very few moans about all the walking and all the uphill, most of which were from me. 

Gracie picked an unusual spot for a picnic, or so I thought, 

until they discovered a tree you could ride on. 

We finally located a path and eventually we were walking on the Staffordshire way. This was good as we couldn't get lost. This was also terrible as for a mile the Staffordshire way makes you walk along the side of a busy main road without a pavement. We won't be walking the Staffordshire way again, we prefer to be safe. 

Later on we walked past Shugborough Hall and its various follies. 

The Hall is closed on Tuesdays but we hadn't planned to visit anyway. 

We could still see the goats and sheep which we were glad were on the other side of a fence as these horns looked like they would win any disagreement. 

At the farm shop in Great Haywood, that some of our readers will know quite well, we found a black cheese. Some has duly been purchased for sampling another day. 

We have seen some unusual craft on this trip, but this is the strangest cargo so far. 

At Little Haywood bridge a thought occurred to me. How big were the horses that pulled the boats. The ones I have seen at demonstrations are huge so in that case how did they get under these bridges. 

Gracie is 10 and she can only just fit under at the very edge of the towpath. 

Perhaps they used Shetlands on this canal?

The long way home

We have now met everyone we had planned to on our trip and have begun the slow meander home. As we are ahead of schedule we can cruise less and stop more. 

Last night in the unexpected heat we went for a walk around Fradley water park. The lake was created do the Trent and Mersey kept their water and it didn't go into the Coventry. Highly inventive. On the way to the water park we passed this dog who knew how to deal with the heat. 

We filled up with water this morning whilst Alison took advantage of the proper showers available. Both took ages but at least it was concurrently. 

When we finally set off we had to negotiate several locks with these bridges. Luckily the chimney passed through all with ease. 

We were rapidly running out of money so decided to stop in Rugeley for a cash point. We tried to pull in at the visitor moorings but grounded a full metre from the bank! Not very good visitor moorings. The boat passing us going the other way also grounded level with us. We poled off eventually but cannot believe the shallow depth of canal here and will not try to stop at Rugeley visitor moorings again. A little later we found a lovely mooring spot and managed to get to the bank with ease. 

Disaster. Somebody spotted my ratchet windlass and asked what it was. I eagerly  picked it up to demonstrate one to find out the the part that changes the ratchet from one direction to the other has fallen off and it now is a non-ratchet windlass! Much sulking ensued. Upon further checking lots of the screws were loose so I tightened these with my ratchet screwdriver. I tightened them too much and broke the screwdriver. Even more sulking followed. 

In Rugeley I found a hardware shop and managed to buy a bolt that will work the ratchet so now have a customised windlass with no loose screws, but alas no ratchet screwdriver any more. 

After we left Rugeley we cruised across the Trent aqueduct. 

And finally moored in Little Haywood. 

 

A beautiful spot with a picnic bench just by us. 

 

We are not sure why Buddha is in the field by the bench but he looks content enough. 

The view here is excellent, there is a railway on either side. We will come back here 

And when we got into the village there are two pubs and a general store so the crew are happy too. Everyone's a winner. 

Gongoozlers Galore

Today we were off late, as we don't have far to go. We are on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal now, you can tell this by the fact the bridges have names and not numbers. I took this photograph whilst at the tiller, and then had yet another low chimney panic.
This was not as bad as getting under the A38, where the chimney had about 2 cm clearance and we struck the towpath trying to stay to the right. We did make it. 

This was looking back at the bridge after successful passing. Perhaps I'll take bridge photos like this in the future. 

Suddenly the canal turns back into the Coventry  canal on what, for obvious reasons, is called the isolated section. It is interesting reading as to how this came about. 

When we got to Fradley Junction we took the first available mooring. It could have been made to measure as we fit into it perfectly.
We were very glad that we took this mooring as there are no others available that we can find.

We decided to stay here for the night, as we had already met up with Graham and Roslyn, and we were going to go for a meal. When we reached the junction, we were delighted that we will not be passing through yet today as there are Gongoozlers everywhere. It would be at a time like this and I would do something stupid.

We had a wonderful meal, even Kenneth Michael enjoyed the carvery despite many complaints that he didn't like a carvery until it transpired that he didn't know what one was.
Graham and Roslyn were superb company as always and proved the value of true friends by picking up essential supplies for us. Here is a picture of them, children and supplies. 

We are now making the most of being moored up before one thirty.