Saturday 30th August
Decided to stay put today and catch a bus to Stoke on Trent, we had
seen the bus stop up over the bridge, but hadn’t seen any buses going through,
but thought we would go up anyway and see what happens. As we locked up the boat, a lady came past
walking her dog, so we asked here about the buses and she said that they do
usually come over the canal, but the road was shut at present so the best thing
to do was to walk up through the shops to the main road and get a bus there, so
that is what we did. We got to the bus
stop and asked a chap waiting for the bus, he said the No. 5 was due shortly
and would take us to the shopping centre, so we caught that, the fare was £3
return each. The journey was about 30
minutes. We got off the bus and that
chap pointed us in the right direction.
We soon found all the shops, it is okay but probably not as nice as some
towns we have been too. Had a wander
around, had a bit of lunch then caught the bus back.
Chilled out for a bit, then had a walk along the canal to the
lock. Between where we are moored and
the lock, the canal was really open, so we decided to come back to the boat and
move down towards the lock in the nice open bit. We shall stay here tonight, then chugging off
tomorrow.
Sunday 31st August
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| Long Butts Lift Bridge |
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| Norton Green Lift Bridge |
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| Duck Island! |
It was quite sunny today and warm as we set off to the first lock,
unfortunately someone had just gone through in front of us, so I had to empty
it first, soon through there and along the canal to the lift bridge, it is
worked with a windlass, it was okay to do, but hard work, abit further along
was another lift bridge, again worked with a windlass but this one was really
easy, it is a really nice canal, but
very narrow in parts and a lot of the bridges seem to be on corners, abit
tricky at times! Up to the next locks,
there are five of them and I had to set most of them, but didn’t take too long
to go through. Saw a couple of boats,
but it is very quiet. On up the canal
and there is an obstacle in the middle of the canal, it is the remains of an
old swing bridge, I think the ducks think it is their island!
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| Off on the |Leek Branch we go |
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| Going over Aqueduct |
Stopped at the services to fill up, then on we went, past the village
of Endon and up to Hazlehurst Junction, we went right onto the Leek
Branch. A little way along you go over
an aqueduct which goes over the main Caldon canal. This stretch is particularly windy and in
places more like a ditch as it didn’t have any proper sides, but very rural and
the views are lovely.
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| In Leek Tunnel |
Chugged on and then we were at Leek Tunnel, it is only 130 yards,
chugged through there and then after about ½ mile, you go under a bridge and
have to wind there as just a bit further up, the canal ends. There are moorings by the winding hole but
when we got there, it was full, funny hadn’t seen many boats all day, I think
they were all here! We were told there
was a space right at the end so Kev reversed all the way down the line of boats
without touching a single one and we got on the end. It is really quiet here, a lovely spot.
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| Coming out Leek Tunnel |
Chilled out for a bit, then decided to go for a walk. Walked up to the end of the canal, you then
have to go through an industrial estate, and then you come to the main road
where there is a Morrisons. We thought
we would see if we could find the shops, so went in a garage and asked, they
gave us directions, so we trundled off up this steep hill to find the shops
weren’t up there, we were in the right direction so we carried on walking and
eventually we found the town, it is really nice, but not quite as close as we
had anticipated! Had a quick look
around, got a Chinese takeaway and hot footed it back to the boat, it did seem
quicker on the way back.
We are going to stay here tomorrow and go back up to Leek to have a
proper look around and hopefully find a more direct route to the town!
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| Moored at Leek |
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