Last Day and Back to Aston Marina.

Thursday 5th October 2023 in Aston Marina.

 It seems to be traditional that, each year, it rains on the very last day of cruising back to Aston, and today was no exception. At least it was only gentle rain! This very fancy bridge was made to serve the needs of the aristocratic local Sandon Estate (not that the posh folk would have been able to see the fancy brickwork as they drove over in their horse-drawn carriages!). Very pretty artistry, nonetheless.

Although the sky looks quite good and a watery sun did try to shine through, the gentle rain continued all day. 

This is MM coming into Sandon Lock, the last lock on our summer cruise. M (the resident photographer, failed to take a better photograph, on account of chatting to two Americans on a hire boat following us. One was from Idaho and one from Arizona, and they were loving our little canals and colourful, eccentric narrowboats!).

M took this photograph because the scene resembled a Constable painting; all it needs is a haywain.

This is the penultimate bridge before we reach Aston. We love it and have always called it the "Sheep Bridge", can't think why!

Finally turning into Aston Marina. Every year, this is a happy/sad moment.

It was on the 5th June that we set off in the spring and it is the 5th October that we have returned to the marina.

What a fabulous four months it has been. Despite it being our shortest summer cruise, we managed to pack a lot into the time. The highlight has undoubtedly got to be the passage into, and staying in, Liverpool; an absolutely magic nine days. Next year, we are planning to go back to Liverpool with our friends Harley and Shelley who sadly could not make it this year. We miss them and we wish them well for the Australian summer.

Tomorrow, we shall take the train(s) back home. We will be back with the car later in the month to prepare MM for the winter. So, until next year then...

Today: 5 miles, 1 lock and 2.0 hours.

Trip: 318 miles, 137 locks and 170.4 hours.

MM Since Launch: 5,538 miles, 3,361 locks and 3,641.2 hours.

A Day Off and then on to Weston

 Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th October 2023 at Weston-upon-Trent.

On Tuesday, we decided to take a day off as we are not in a hurry to get back to our marina. The day started well with a beautiful sunrise.

Breakfast in the Canalside Café wth Mel and Peter was the first order of the day!

During the day, we did a few jobs on MM but then went back to the Canaside Café for tea and cakes in the afternoon (actually, M had a bowl of their excellent chips!). We both smiled at this notice as we have a similar, if smaller, one at home just inside the front door.

This "Sir Choc-A-Lot" cake looked really delicious but we (i.e. Robin!) managed to resist the temptation and we  just had coffee (R) and green tea (M).

On Wednesday morning, R backed MM through the bridge to fill up with water before we departed. The local farm, and farm shop, grow thousands of pumpkins. This is just one field of them and they advertise "pick your own" and even "ghostly night-time Pick Your Own" in the dark.

This large and attractive garden always intrigues as it is very well cared for and stocked with many specimen trees, but there is absolutely no sign of a house anywhere nearby.

Having moored up outside the house of our friends Peter and Bridgett, we were visited by two of the local natives, peering in our windows, clearly hopeful of swan food.

This is always a lovely mooring although the sycamore tree above did shed an awful lot of seeds on MM's roof.

 In the evening, we joined Peter and Bridgett for dinner. Bridgett produced a wonderfully warming casserole on what was a cold, wet evening, and this, accompanied by an excellent red wine, was a wonderful way to spend time with them, catching up since we were last together in the spring.

Today: 3 miles, 2 locks and 2.6 hours.

Trip: 313 miles, 136 locks and 168.4 hours.

Mel and Peter at the Canalside Café

 Monday 2nd October 2023 in Great Haywood.

After all the rain yesterday afternoon and evening, this morning started bright and clear and was forecast to remain so all day. Our friends Mel and Peter, who live not far from our marina, had said that they would be walking their dog along on the towpath in our direction, so we started off towards Great Haywood junction.

Every so often on the canals you come across a "turnover" bridge, where the towpath changes from one side to the other. These special bridges are designed so that, in the days of horse drawn boats,  the horse could walk over the bridge without the tow rope being unclipped, therefore the bridge is designed so that the path goes over the bridge and then under it.

This is a particularly well preserved example with the curved path to allow the horse back under the bridge. So clever yet so simple.

This is a famous "Brindley" aqueduct that carries the canal over the River Sow as both river and canal head towards Great Haywood.

The last lock before Great Haywood is Tixall Lock, just 4ft 6in deep but the gates seemed to be disproportionally heavy for such a small lock. We had hoped that Mel and Peter might be here to help us through but there was no sign of them. "Where were you when we needed you?" we asked them when we met up!

It is very rare nowadays to see signposts that still quote distances in Furlongs. Just 1 Mile and 3 Furlongs to go.

Tixall Wide is - wide!! It always looks as if you are cruising across a lake, which was exactly the intention of the landowner who would only agree to the canal being built across his land if it were made to look like an ornamental lake.

Finally, as we approached Great Haywood, we met up with Mel and Peter and their dog "Inca" (out of shot). Had they been lurking under that bridge all along, we wondered?!

At Great Haywood, we cruised under the famous bridge and turned north on to the Trent & Mersey Canal.

After we moored up MM with Mel and Peter, we walked to the Canalside Café for a coffee and found that the farm shop was alreadyin full swing for Hallowe'en. They grow a lot of pumpkins and even advertise a ghostly "Pick your own Pumpkins" at night!

The plan is to stay here tomorrow and take a day off but as MM is moored opposite the Café the temptation for breakfast and the occasional coffee and cake may be irresistible.

Today: 3 miles, 1 lock and 1.8 hours.

Trip: 310 miles, 134 locks and 165.8 hours.

Andy, Michelle and Ralph Visit.

 Sunday 1st October 2023 in Milford.

A beautiful early morning for the first day of October. Can it really be October already?!

We left early as we had arranged to meet our friends Andy and Michelle who live locally in Baswich. They walked back towards us, so we picked them up, along with their very cute border terrier, "Ralph", and moored up just past the Staffordshire Link for a coffee and catch up.

Ralph seemed quite happy to be on board and was very well behaved. He was very interested in everything that was going on.

It was great to spend some time with Andy and Michelle, and we discussed the idea of getting together the three "lads", Andy, Scott and Adrian, who all grew up together and went to school in Daventry. It is so rare to get all of them in one place.

As they left, we walked with them to their car and then we went on to the local Co-op for a "few bits".

We had moored just beside the Staffordshire Link, a renovation project to restore the original canal link into the centre of Stafford. Great progress has been made recently in restoring the basin that will eventually connect to the main canal and link to the lock that will carry the canal down on to the River Penk. The river will then need to be dredged to carry boats into the centre of the town. Even such a short length of restoration (less than two miles) is incredibly complicated and expensive.

Returning to MM, we decided to move on a bit further. This turned out to be a mistake as the heavens opened and it began to pour with rain. This line of fishermen, huddled under their umbrellas, illustrates how wet it was. Despite the awful weather, they all waved cheerily to us as we passed by.

Eventually sanity prevailed and we moored up in the first available open space that was not under trees. It turned out to be very shallow and MM ended up at least 18 inches from the edge, but at least we could go inside and get dry. As we moored up, the Pride Train sailed past on the railway line, very colourful! We see it fairly regularly up here.

Today: 4 miles, 1 lock and 2.3 hours.

Trip: 307 miles, 133 locks and 164.0 hours.