Heading South

 So we had the weekend to ourselves and just pottered about, but knew we were going to move on the Monday..

We moved up to Great Haywood Junction and went over the Aqueduct .

We turned and reversed up for the water point, got rid of our rubbish, and picked up six bags of coal so we were ready for the next cold snap.

We have been a bit lax on the wood front this year as we had a load in the lockers, but we are now getting low on our nice seasoned wood and need to find some more..

 

We set off towards our first lock of the day, Haywood Lock.

It was then past Shugborough Hall.

To our second lock, Colwich Lock, which we always call Little Haywood Lock.

Its was then through the woods at Wolseley bridge with views of Cannock Chase.

The canal then takes you out into the countryside until you reach the Aqueduct when you get into Rugeley..

You then go past some very nice gardens, Brindley Bank, and this one was all over Halloween.

Rugeley is overpowered by its power station to the east of you, just visible through the new housing estates, but the canal is still very pleasant to cruise.

You then get to the narrows at Armitage tunnel which is now a road bridge in rock. Only one boat can pass here and its worth checking the way is clear before you enter..

Its was then into more woods, and the wind had picked up and covered the canal in a blanket of fallen leaves..

Its very pretty through here until you get to Armitage, home of the Armitage Shanks toilet.

You then get to the lovely village of Handsacre and we got to our objective of the day.

At bridge 56 there is a canal closure from the 2nd November due to a dislodged stone under it on the towpath.

The canal needs to be drained to repair this and it was going to be closed for a few weeks. We had to push on because coinciding with this closure some HS2 work was being done at Wood End Lock just before Fradley Junction.

We had lock keepers here and it made life very easy until we made the turn..

Something jammed into the prop and we struggled to get through the swingbridge.. We pulled over and managed to get off a huge builders bag before we could get on our way.

Our next drama was at Bell Bridge (where we were following another boat), but it was lovely through the trees up to that point.

We met two boats just the other side of the bridge, and on passing the first one they got in trouble in shallow waters. As we passed them nice and slow the boat following them passed us so close and then rammed the stuck boat hard in the stern riding up the tiller.. Del shouted " what you doing mate" and he replied "I don't have any gears" . The couple on the back of the distressed boat were shocked and could have been crushed by the bow. There was not even apologies taking place and when we had gone by he saw us taking a photo of him in reverse, so his gears were working..

He gave us the finger of fate, reversed over to the bank and jumped off. He then run up the towpath and then took our photo on his phone, as he obviously wasn't happy about us taking his picture!. Lets hope there is not too much damage to the other boat.

We pushed on and it started to get a bit chilly, so Al lit the fire and we then got to Huddlesford and were looking for a nice mooring after a long day..

We pulled up at Whittington and sorted ourselves out before we sat down inside a warm and snuggly Derwent6.

Al cooked a lovely steak and chips and that went well with a glass of wine, what more do you want..