Not quite such an early start but away by 9-15 am. meeting several boats as we made our way towards Gailey. We passed this milestone on the way, I can only assume it was moved here when they concreted the spill weir.
The buildings at Hatherton Junction which I think are Calf Heath Marina are all closed up and looking deserted. As we arrived at Gailey we could see the queue forming, it was 40 minutes before we were in the lock and by then even more boats had arrived, there was also a steady stream waiting to come up. Thankfully this was the end of queuing for the day other than catching up the boat in front. While I was locking down in Penkridge Diana nipped round the shop for a couple of items, coming back mumbling he had overcharged her, a few minutes later and she was off back round there to sort it out. She hadn’t been overcharged it was just the things where more expensive than she expected. We carried on in the sunshine but got a surprise at Shutt Hill Lock as the working boat Lynx arrived at the top of the lock just as we were leaving, how he managed to pass the queue behind us I don’t know. Down at Deptmore Lock we waited to the boat in front left and then turned the lock, before we could enter Lynx again appeared so I let him go by and get ahead, we weren’t going much further tonight and he wanted to make Haywood tonight. Once they were on there way we went a bit further stopping for the night just before bridge 101 St Thomas Bridge about half four.
2 comments:
I suspect the milestone was at the junction of the Stafford Branch (A lock down into the River Sow, once improved for navigation into the town)
Ray, it was several miles away from there somewhere near bridge 77 Calf heath Bridge
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