Day : Sunday
Date : 6 October 2019
Start : 1010
Finish : 1450 Shugborough Hall
IMPORTANT NOTICE |
The meal at the Thai restaurant last night was very good, we went for the cheapest set meal for two, last time we had the more expensive one, so didn't want to repeat it. I get lost trying to chose individual dishes from the menu.
Last night tuned out to be not the best of moorings and we were both woken in the early hours by what sounded like a generator and that was after the rain finally stopped.
This morning it was fine when we set off but a coat was soon called for, we waited at most of the locks ether for the boat ahead to go down or in one case for a boat to come up. They were bit of a case, the chap was teaching the girl how to do locks, First he had her close the bottom gates, so Diana suggested it might be a good idea for the boat to come in first, then he had her crank the top gate paddle fully up, this was with the boat in the lock but both bottom gates fully open, I couldn't workout what they were up to leaving the lock but it resulted in the boat leaving the lock and then reversing back in. Interesting to say the least, I am sure the girl will do well with instruction like that.
We passed a field of cows where there was just one Long Horn watching the world go by.
As it started to rain we met two chaps in a canoe coming towards us, it looked like that also had their camping kit onboard, not the nicest of days for it.
I think Salt Bridge must be one of the prettiest brick bridges on the system, unfortunately due to being a semicircle it suffers a lot of strikes to the brick work on the off side. To try and reduce this CRT have just installed what they call fendering to the off side, its actually two chevron boards and wouldn't fender anything because before the hull of a boat touches it the cabin will have hit the brickwork, so basically just a keep left arrow. In my opinion they would have done much better to put a 2 to 3 foot wide fender at water level all the way under the bridge to physically stop boats making contact, but time will tell, the one on the other side is already hidden with foliage.
I can't quite get my head round why a boater would rather use a mooring hook, which normally clanks and rattles when boats go by, to a mooring ring installed by British Waterways specifically for mooring to.
On the offside there is a field with 3 Narrowboats moored, the field often has living wagons or horse drawn carriages in it, as well as a couple of horses and some geese, today there was this very smart Romany stile horse drawn caravan there, I do hope I have described this using the correct terms. It looked quite splendid.
We stopped at Gt. Haywood junction to fill with water and dispose of rubbish, looking over the bridge I spotted a rather iconic Narrowboat Whitfield, you can read more about at https://www.canalboat.co.uk/canal-boats/boat-tests/fernwood-a-a-white-1-2257916
We carried on down through Haywood lock to moor for the night overlooking Shugborough Hall and the flooded fields around the River Trent.
Today's Journey 10 Miles 5 Locks in 4¾ hours
Note:
All of the above is my personal opinion and does not represent those of any official body or notices.
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