Nearly home - moored at Rugeley

A wet nght was followed by a wet early morning. However the rain had about stopped when we set off at 10:00 under grey skies on our way south. Through Hoo Mill Lock back to Great Haywood and then two further locks took us to Brindley Bank on the outskirts of Rugeley where we moored up at lunchtime.

Moored at Brindley Bank - Trent Aqueduct in background

Here our local IWA branch has installed mooring rings and surfaced the towpath to make it an attractive area for boaters and for local residents. The weather has now greatly improved with blue skies and sunshine and it is now warmer than it has been all week. Hopefully it will continue tomorrow when we journey the final couple of hours back to our marina. So no more blogs until our long summer trip sometime in June.

Back to Ingestre

After breakfast we walked into Stone to have a look at the farmer's market.  It looked very good with locally produced wine, bread, meat, black puddings, a variety of smoked items, pork pies etc etc.  Unfortunately we had enough food on board so couldnt take full advantage.

We set off towards home at 10:30  with a very cold head wind and some rain in the air.  But we made good progress and after eating lunch on the move arrived back at our previous moorings at Ingstre at 1:30 were we stopped for the night.  It was good to tie up and get back into the warmth of the boat thanks to the fire which had kept alight from yesterday.

Moored at Stone

A drier and brighter day today but still with a cold wind. We left Ingestre soon after 9am and by 12:45 had reached Stone where we turned the boat around and moored up.

Salt Bridge

Its a pleasant journey up the Trent valley through open countryside, passing sights such as one of the few inland salt marshes in the country, the bulky but decorative Salt Bridge which I have photographed several times before and a flock of 20 swans, most of which seemed to be last year's young. During the afternoon we walked around the town and bought a few things. This evening we will be going out for an Indian.