Stretton Aqueduct Monday 29 July 2019

Day : Monday
Date : 29 July 2019
Start : 0900
Finish : 1750 Stretton Aqueduct

It was 7-30 this morning when the first Bopity bop came by from the Audlem gathering. I couldn't see a name on it. The sun was already shining and it carried on like that all day. Most of the boats around us were away between 8 and 8-30 so we set off at 9 am in what we thought was a lull in the traffic. Just through the bridge there was a boat adrift so I stopped to re-moor it, at the same time the gent from the boat moored ahead of us walked down with his hammer, so soon sorted, needless to say as soon as we were ready to go a boat came up behind us so we followed him, short time later another boat was gaining on us from behind so I pulled over and let him chase the front one.

We passed Knighton covered loading bay which now houses a floating paint dock

The old car under the falling down lean to is still in very good condition considering its surroundings#

The next highlight was High Bridge with its telegraph pole, so I took this shot of Brian steering us through,

At Gnosall we really started to meet the traffic passing the first oat in the tunnel approach, the next in the tunnel and several before the next bridge. We had been told that Wheaton Aston lock was going to close in the morning so changed our plans to get up today. I do like this slow down notice by the long term moorings, a little bit of humour

We worked the lock with no problem at all and once above it I checked the CRT stoppage list again and now the lock is not even mentioned.

We continued to moor for the night just before Stretton Aqueduct, this may turn out to be a bad move as the traffic is somewhat noisy at the moment.

Today's Journey

17¼ Miles 1 Lock in 7¾ hours