A long wait on the way to Rugeley

The sky was still overcast this morning but brighter than yesterday.  We left Ingestre at 9:30 and continued south down the Trent & Mersey, never more than quarter of a mile or so from the River Trent.

Creche of Canada Geese

Soon after starting we passed a creche of Canada Goslings supervised by a couple of adults. Like other geese, all the goslings in a flock are brought up together.  The adults accompanying them may well not be the parents.  The numbers of Canada Geese on the canals have been increasing significantly in recent years.  They now often outnumber the ducks and are really a bit of a nuisance to boaters.  They start loudly calling at dawn and deposit their droppings everywhere, particularly on boats given a chance.

We then descended Hoo Mill Lock and arrived at Great Haywood Junction at 10:40.  Here the Staffs and Worcestershire Canal joins the Trent & Mersey but we continued past the junction and moored soon afterwards.  Our main objective was the farm shop where there is a very good  deli and butchers together with freshly baked bread and a variety of specialist groceries.  Here we bought some meat for the next couple of days dinners, some local flavoured scotch eggs for lunch and a box strawberries grown at the farm..

Waiting at Great Haywood Lock

 Back on Densie we set off towards Great Haywood Lock where we were 6th in a queue.  This lock is one of the busiest on the whole canal system, and particularly busy this May bank holiday weekend.  We finally got through the lock about 90 minutes later.  A little further on we were delighted to get a good view of a kingfisher, our first sighting this year.

Distant view of Rugeley power station

Bridge 68 near Rugeley taking the towpath to the other side of the canal

A group of cygnets

Then the canal continued through the countryside to tractive outskirts of Rugeley, the first urban area since we set off.  It is a former mining town where local coal supplied the now disused power station, the first of many built alongside the Trent.  Its other key attraction is a Tesco next to the canal, where we moored and stocked up with more routine provisions than available from the farm shop.

Today - 7 miles, 3 locks, 4 h 20min travelling.