THE BIG SUMMER CRUISE--July 28th--August 3rd

Monday 28th July
Today we continued along the Leek and Caldon.
It really is a most delightful canal, and when we turned on to the Leek arm it got better.
AND, there were no locks!
It's so pretty and remote and very quiet.
There are some beautiful houses with gardens running down to the canal.


We're in the Staffordshire Moorlands and the views are far reaching and spectacular.
The canal is a cul-de-sac. At the end, it goes through a tunnel
and then there is a winding hole marked in the guide.
We were keeping our fingers crossed that the canal guide was right
and that we would be able to wind at the far end,
otherwise, it was going to be a long way back in reverse!
We went through the tunnel and lo and behold,
there WAS a winding hole, big enough to turn Liberty Belle.
So we turned her round, or rather Trev did--it's a man thing--and moored up.

We walked in to Leek, about a twenty minute walk, and shopped.

In the evening we started to cook the dinner--in fact Trev did--
is that another man thing?--when...........the gas ran out!
We have two gas bottles, but what we didn't realise was
that there is a valve which had automatically changed it
from bottle A to bottle B when bottle A was empty.
So, it was chicken sandwiches and Cuppa Soup for dinner!

Tuesday, 29th July
Our problem was, how to get gas bottles to the boat.
We were quite a distance from the shops or a road, and up an embankment.
Full Calor gas bottles are very heavy and we have no trolley.
The man in the next boat lent us a trolley, even though we didn't know him
and even though he was about to leave.
He was doing the same route as us,
so said we should look out for each other and give it back to him.
His wife also offered to make us a hot drink, but we had an electric kettle with us.
It quite restores one's faith in mankind.
But we still needed to find a Calor dealer.
I looked it up on the internet and found there was a dealer in Leek.
So Trev rang, but they said they couldn't deliver before Friday............
However, the receptionist asked Trev to wait whilst she went to find something out,
and then said they would send someone out specially, and they did.
A most affable man came out with two full bottles and brought them right to the boat on a trolley.
What service!

So, after breakfast, we set off complete with two full bottles of gas and a lesson learned!
Now we shall leave the second bottle turned off until the first one is empty,
and then we shall know we're on our last bottle!
We loved the area where we had moored, and would have stayed another night,
but we have friends coming to see us tomorrow, from Leamington,
and it wasn't easy to access by road.
So, we went back down the Leek arm to where it meets the Caldon arm
and turned down there.
It started to rain, but we persevered.
What's a drop of rain to intrepid boaters such as us?
We moored at Cheddleton, right next to the man who'd leant us the trolley,
so were able to return it.
His boat's called "Potters About". You can guess his surname!

Wednesday, 30th July
The friends we were expecting today phoned to say that their dogsitter
couldn't come to look after their dog, so they couldn't come.
We were SO disappointed.
We were looking forward to their company, and hearing all their news.
They've just come back from Spain after buying a house there,
and we wanted all the gossip and to see the pictures.
So we decided to move on and went on down
to the furthermost navigable part of the canal
--navigable for us that is.
There is a very low tunnel at the end, which few boats go through,
and in front of it is a winding hole.
However, I had fortunately found out from my internet contacts
that the winding hole in front of the tunnel will only wind boats up to 65',
even though the canal guide indicates that 70' boats can wind there.
Isn't it a good job that I'm on the ball.
Behind every good man there's an even better woman!!!

So, we went down to it and Trev did a brilliant job
of turning the boat in a very tight winding hole.
Part of the canal runs alongside the Churnett Valley Railway, a private line.
There were steam trains running, and the sound of the engine,
the smoke billowing out and the beautiful noises of it all
were most evocative of days gone by.
And here we were on the canal running alongside
and the whole scene was most nostalgic.
The station at Consall Forge was a lovely old fashioned affair,
and I thought you would love this picture of the waiting room on the one side,
cantilevered out over the canal! I just hope there's never a crowd waiting!



It absolutely poured today, and we were drenched through to the skin.
We moored up and put on the central heating to dry out.
In the evening we went for a bar snack at The Black Lion, a very remote little pub by the railway.

Thursday, 31st July
We moved on to our boat four months ago today.
It seems a lifetime, so many things have happened.
You want to know if I would do it again, don't you?
The answer is yes, though probably we would do things differently with hindsight.

We carried on back along the Caldon and moored at Cheddleton again,
where we moored on the way out.
And, at last I saw a kingfisher.
It swooped in to the water in front of the boat and then landed on the boat just two metres away from me.
If I hadn't pointed to it to show Trev, I think it might have stayed.That was a real treat.
Then we had another first, though we could really have done without it;
a rat jumped in to the canal and swam straight across.
It did it mostly underwater, only coming up twice for air.


CALDON CANAL LEFT, LEEK CANAL RIGHT.

Friday, 1st August
We moved on today so that we could be near a road bridge, as our post man is coming tomorrow!
We're still on the Leek & Caldon, but will move back on to the Trent and Mersey on Sunday.
We're sorry to be leaving the canal, it's been so peaceful.
But there are places to explore, people to see, new experiences to come!
The picture below is of an obstruction which is in the middle of the canal.
It is the base of an old swing bridge.



Saturday, 2nd August
Today our friends brought our post and spent the day on board with us.
They came down through five locks with us before they left.
In the evening there was a knock on the side of the boat,
and there was a person I'd never met,
but who subscribes to the same canal newsgroup as me.
So he came in with his colleague and stayed for a while.
They were on the narrowboat Earnest, and were hoping to get through the Froghall tunnel,
the very low one at the end of the Caldon.

Sunday, August 3rd
We were up early this morning as we were keen to get through
the less desirable parts of Stoke-on-Trent
before the local wildlife was up and about!
We had a good run down to the junction with the Trent & Mersey and turned right, northwards.
We went past the Royal Doulton factory outlet, but Trev wouldn't stop!
We also passed the Steelite china factory, and the Middleport pottery,
which has been saved from destruction by an enterprising family
who are bringing it back to its former glory.

The big adventure today is going through the Harecastle Tunnel.
It is 2926 yards long, and, as it is single width,
you have to take it in turns to travel one way or the other.
It takes around forty minutes to get through,
and sadly we missed the convoy going north by five minutes.
So that meant we had about an hour and a quarter wait.
Up to eight boats are allowed through in any one direction at a time.
From the south, you go through the entrance and, when everyone is in,
the doors are shut behind you and fans are put on to extract the fumes.


THE ENTRANCE TO THE SOUTHERN END OF THE HARECASTLE TUNNEL

It was like going in to the gates of hell.
I hadn't been particularly looking forward to it,
but when we actually got in, I really hated it.
I found it frightening. It's so noisy with the engines going,
that you can't talk to each other, neither can you see each other,
so I went below and put all the lights on and played a computer game
to try to block out what was going on out there!
I kept thinking of all the possibilites--
what if the engine broke down,
what if we got something stuck in the weedhatch,
what if the boat behind ran in to us, etc.
But, of course, we survived.


THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!
The deep rusty colour of the water in the canal is due to the ironstone strata.

We came out at the other end in to brilliant sunshine.
Now we're in Cheshire.
In a few hundred yards we turned left on to the Macclesfield.
This is another delightful canal, passing through the Cheshire countryside.
It links up with the Ashton Canal at the far end, but we shan't do that,
as we hear it can be "Bandit Country"!
There is also an arm which goes down to Whaley Bridge, called The Peak Forest Canal,
and we hope to do that, too.
We moored up near a pub and ate there in the evening. It had been a long day.

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