Cheddleton Monday May 2 2016

I must say these moorings just above the Toby Carvery last night were just fine. We set off this morning at twenty to ten to a very overcast day. We turned left at Etruria Junction and headed up the Caldon canal. The first lock we came to was Bedford Street staircase lock with both the bottom paddles up and the top chamber full. As we went up it became obvious why the top chamber was full as that had a top paddle quarter open, I couldn’t wind it down without first opening it fully and then winding down, so I guess the last boat down couldn’t have closed it properly and manage d to force the middle gates open.

We passed the Oat cake Boat moored ready for business at Festival Park where they were holding an event in the bandstand today to celebrate a heritage Lottery Fund Grant to restore the area.

These old bottle kilns are looking much better than last time we passed, I understand all the kilns in Stoke have been listed, but that doesn’t mean they get maintained.

By the time we went through Ivy House Lift Bridge the sky was really going dark and it wasn’t long before the rain started.

CRT have tried protecting the underside of some of the bridges with plywood, I am not sure what they think it will do when hit edge on with 15+ tonnes of steel at 3 MPH.

By the time we got to Milton it was really raining so we stopped for lunch and I took the opportunity to change the primary diesel filter, the engine had coughed a couple of times this morning, a sure sign that a filter change is required. It was a bit mucky but no water or gunge thank goodness. Its only done 1100 hours ago.

When we set off again the engine seamed much happier and has sounded fine all afternoon.
We got a surprise at Norton Green Lift bridge, it has been electrified, very nice but not sure how they justify the cost of such an installation. It wasn’t that hard to lift in manually like Long Butts bridge. And the the sun came out for a but but the showers were still about.

We stopped at the services at Endon, just before the serviced there are visitor moorings for just about 3 boats fender to fender, just before that there are long term moorings with not a single boat on them but with room for 20. As we arrived at the services, we were only dumping stuff a boat was just leaving so we were soon on their tail, as they went up the Leak canal at Hazlehurst Junction we kept on the Caldon and went down the Hazlehurst flight, continuing on to Cheddleton where we moored for the night just before Cheddleton Locks at 1830hrs.

Today’s Journey 11½ Miles, 12 locks, 2 Junctions in 6½ hours