Firstly I am sorry that this is a day late but there is no internet signal on the Cheddleton visitor moorings so it was not posted until Saturday.
Last night Diana cooked us a lovely Christmas dinner with turkey, sprouts, roast potatoes, carrots, pigs in blankets and bread sauce, this was followed by Christmas pud and Brandy sauce. It was a candle lit meal apart from the fairy lights.
We were as expected all alone, well that is apart from the owls,
there was more than one. As you can see there is room for 8 boats against the pontoons, they are a bit short for Narrowboats but that gives more room to swing in the basin. The Uttoxeter canal will leave in the far left corner where the bridge is at the moment.
When we woke this morning there was not a breath of wind and setting off at 1030 AM the mist was hanging in the hills. We
returned through Froghall tunnel this time without touching the sides and headed back up towards Flint Mill lock. On the way we pass through Cherryeye Bridge. This is a bit unusual for a canal 
bridge as the arches are not normally shaped like this. Also unlike most bridges that had irons to protect the stone work from the tow ropes this one has hard wood edgings. 
Just before Flint Mill lock there floating in the water about 100Mt below the lock all innocently was yesterdays wooden log that
caused us the problems, still it well out of harms way now and I expect someone will fish it out and give it a loving home until its dry enough to burn.
On to Black Lion railway bridge, here the tow path that runs
under the bridge has collapsed just as it goes under the bridge so the area is barriered off and you have to walk round via the pub and I assume crossing the railway line.
Just passed the weir at Consall is a water point, there are no bollards or rings to tie to, its ether put a stake in or tie to the water point its self. We opted for the stake method but when we tried to fill with water the pressure and flow was so poor it wouldn’t go through the kinks in the hose, so we gave that one up as a bad job. As steady push up the Churnet which was still behaving its self we were soon at Oakmeadow Ford lock, here on the edge of the lock was some poo, to me it looks full of fish
bones so I wonder if its a Mink or an Otter. They say you can tell by the smell but I didn’t fancy getting my nose that close.
As we passed the Churnet Valley Railway this diesel unit had its
engine running, there were a few people about but we hadn’t see any sign of life further down so I don’t know if it was just maintenance of if they are running a service this afternoon. We did the two Cheddleton locks, passed under the workshop that bridges the canal and moored on the visitor moorings by the old flint mill for the night. We had been here about half an hour and it started to rain, so our timing was spot on. I have also had the freshwater pump to pieces and fitted a new diaphragm so hopefully it will not continue leaking.
As I couldn’t send this blog a couple of updates.
Firstly the pump still leaks, so it will have to be a new one.
Secondly we missed it being a whit Christmas here by 18 hrs. but I think it has to snow in London to be an official White Christmas.
Today’s journey
2 canals, 1 junction, 6 locks 5¾ miles in 3¾ hours
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