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Change of plans - we went home on Tuesday in one go rather than staying out another night.

So that's our travelling for the time being - more news when we go out again.

Great Haywood and the Trent & Mersey

Bricks missing from the Sow Aqueduct

Boats moored at Great Haywood Junction

The dark, damp, drizzly and generally unpleasant morning delayed our departure until 11am when the clouds began to lighten a little.  Fortunately the weather improved as we travelled the remaining 4 miles and 1 lock to Great Haywood where the Staffs & Worcs Canal joins the Trent & Mersey.  Passing over the aqueduct over the River Sow we were disappointed to see that there were even more bricks missing than we had seen earlier this year.  I am not sure whether people steal them or they are knocked off by passing boats.  I will report this to CRT.

At the lock, Tixall Lock, there were unusually 2 hireboats ahead of us waiting to descend.  One was crewed by a group of Swedes out on the second day of their first ever canal boat holiday and the other by a Dutch couple. 

When we eventually reach Great Haywood it was lunch time and we were due to descend a further two locks in the next mile or so we moored up to eat with the intention of moving on afterwards.  However as usually happens we never summoned the enthusiasm to move on.  So here we stayed.  After all it doenst matter if we take an extra day getting home.

North from Penkridge

Teddesley Bridge near Penkridge - built for a driveway to Teddesley House, demolished in 1954.

 After the heavy rains of yesterday it was a dry day today so we left Penkridge at 9:30, stopping off to fill up with water, and then down the locks travelling north. An unexpected number of boats on the move resulted in most locks being set in our favour and in many cases we didnt need to close the gates on leaving as there were boats waiting to come up.

We moored at Baswich at lunchtime near where a local group has started excavating an old waterway into Stafford with a view to restoration.  So we had a quick look around the site and then returned to the warmth of the boat.  Research on Google came up with the information that the canal was built in the 1810's and by the 1920's had become derelict and was filled in.  Until the excavations there was virtually nothing to show that the canal had once existed.

Statistics - 6.16m, 5 locks in 3hours 15 mins

Penkridge

We only travelled during the morning, starting when the rain stopped at 9:30 and mooring at Penkridge at lunchtime.  If we leave on Sunday we should be back home as planned on Tuesday.   Saturday is forecast to be pretty wet so it seem sensible not to move then anyway.

This evening we will be eating out at the Littleton Arms at Penkridge where the food has been good on previous occasions.

Homeward bound on the Staffs & Worcs

 We are now on our way home.  We do not want to arrive back on Monday as our marina is closed which means we cannot empty the waste tank and refill with petrol, so Tuesday it must be.  After all our work in the past few days this gives us a highly welcome leisurely journey of no more than 3 hours travelling each day.

The first of today's activities was to empty our waste tank as we cant last until Tuesday of next week.  The pumpout point is on the Shropshire Union Canal just off the Staffordshire & Worcestershire. So we went through the stop lock separating the two canals, got the tank emptied for £20, the highest charge we have ever met, and then skilfully reversed the boat back into and through the lock to return to the Staffs & Worcs.

Narrow cutting on the Staffs & Worcs

Then we were on our way cruising in bright sunshine down this familiar but attractive canal for the next 2.5 hours, finally mooring out in the countryside in time for lunch.  The picture shows Densie travelling through a cutting on the Staffs & Worcs which is only wide enough for one boat, though there are a couple of passing places.  Brindley's route took the canal through an area of very hard rock so the canal was built narrower there presumably to reduce costs.

Goodbye Birmingham

Modern flats overlooking the canal at Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton top lock

Another long day in mostly sunny weather.  First job in the morning was to walk the short distance to Sainsbury's to stock up with groceries again.  At 9:30 we set off south on the Wyrley and Essington and turned right at Horsley Fields Juction onto the Main Line which took us into Wolverhampton, all at about 500 foot above sea level. The attractive top lock located only a short walk from central Wolverhmpton marks the start of the 21 lock Wolverhampton flight dropping 132 foot from the Birmingham hills.

As usual one of us drove the boat and the other did most of the work on the lock, roles which we swapped over every three locks.  The flight was hard work as we had to fill almost every lock before we could enter and some of the time we were working the locks for a single handed boater in front of us. Fortunately we were helped by the crew of the hire boat behind us which enabled whichever of us was working the locks to walk on ahead to get the next lock ready.  We finally reached the bottom at around 3pm and moored up half a mile from the end of the flight near Autherley Junction on the Staffs and Worcestershire Canal.

Statistics 4.13 miles, 21 locks, 5hr 56min

The Festival is over - on our way home

After a very tiring weekend culminating in a solid 3 hour session yesterday evening packing the contents of the IWA stand into vans we are ready to start on our journey home.  We left Pelsall shortly after 9am and cruised west on the curly Wyrley for 5 1/2 hours including a stop to fill up with water.  The journey was pretty slow thanks to the shallow, narrow and weedy canal but in the bright sunshine it looked very attractive for much of the way.  Another boat had warned us that they had to stop to clear weed around their propellor about 7 times when going to the Festival by this route but we only needed to stop once and there wasnt a lot of weed.

At 3 pm we moored at Wednesfield where we had spent the night on our Explorer cruise 9 days ago.

Statistics - 11.04 miles, 5.5 hours, 0 locks