An Early Start and a Long Day.

Thursday 1st October 2020 at Great Haywood.

As agreed, Jenni met us on the towpath with coffee at 7:30 - at least, we were on the towpath but Jenni stayed on Rufford. Ed and Will preferred to have a lie-in!

A long day lay ahead of us, so we set off immediately after. It was quite cold but the weather had brightened up a bit by the time we arrived at the Fradley swing bridge three hours later.

A volunteer at Fradley Top Lock said that HS2 is scheduled to go across the canal about 300 yards further along. 

He said that the centre line of the track was marked by a blue post in the ground and the orange marks on the trees showed which ones would be cut down. Every tree for a hundred yards had an orange mark. The red arrow points to the blue post.

HS2 will cut across the canal right through this lovely peaceful woodland.

Wood End Lock is isolated in the middle of nowhere.

But not for long, right alongside the lock is a massive area being set up as a construction base for HS2.

We tried (not too successfully) not to dwell on this prospect and to concentrate on enjoying our last full day of cruising in the sunshine. M loves these isolated trees in the middle of fields. These probably mark an ancient field boundary before farmers were paid to rip out the boundaries to make bigger "more efficient" fields. Now, of course, they are being paid to widen boundaries and replace hedges. Clearly, "Yes Minister" still rules.

Armitage "tunnel" used to be a tunnel until the roof caved in! Now it is just a very narrow bit of the canal where two boats cannot pass. We have been through it in both directions many times before without meeting another boat coming the other way. We held back and watched the boat in front of us as he rounded the corner into the tunnel and then had to go into reverse rapidly as there were two boats coming the other way! By the time we could take our turn to go through, we had a convoy of three boats one after the other.

We made very good progress and arrived in Great Haywood at 4:30 to find a group of policemen standing on the bridge. No idea what they were doing but they were in deep discussion about something. They took no notice of us as we cruised quietly past.

Very unexpectedly for this late in the afternoon, there was a free mooring space opposite the café. So, breakfast tomorrow morning is a must!

Today:20 miles, 5 locks nd 8.2 hours.

Trip: 199 miles, 55 locks and 96.5 hours.