Rain, rain, rain and more rain! The weather forecast was showing the rain getting worse as the day went on, so we set off earlyish at 8:15. This part of the canal was very familiar to us as it was our “home canal” for about 6 years. We had fun trying to remember the order
It poured with rain all night and was still raining lightly when we awoke. We settled down to a porridge breakfast expecting to wait a while for the weather to improve. But at about 8:30 the sky cleared and it’s been a lovely sunny day. We have boated this bit of the Staffs & Worcs
8 miles, 3 locks The weather forecast was right today. It was on/off drizzley raind until midday, then rained hard all day. We set off at 8:15 and arrived in Tixall wide at 11:30. We have stayed here all day looking at the rain, the wind and the geese!
7.5 miles, 10 locks The weather forecast for today was heavy rain until mid afternoon. So initially we decided to stay put until the rain eased off. But by about 9:30 the sky was clearing and the rain had stopped, so we set off. The weather forecast was wrong – no more rain all day.
13 miles, 17 locks. A long day today. We had planned a short day. The intention was to overnight in Hanley Park. There are good moorings there and it’s very attractive. But I read some online reports of moorers who have had trouble overnight from local teenagers. So we made a brief stop for lunch
We had previously decided to go up the Caldon canal. It was over 15 years ago that we last did it and, as we are now moving the boat south, it’s unlikely that we’ll be this way again. Unfortunately C&RT have closed the further end because of low water levels. At one point the Candon
Another 7:50 start. Much busier with boats today. The water levels were still down, but not enough to cause problems. We were booked to go through Harecastle tunnel at 14:00 tomorrow, but arrived early at 11:30 today. The keepers said that there were four boats coming through tne other way and we could go about
A day of not enough water! We set off at 7:50 and were soon up through the 3 Middlewich locks, and on round to Kings lock. From there on the water levels were gradually dropping. Just after Wheelock it was down over a foot. We had thought of stopping for the night, but we were