Monday 19 May 2014

Towards Stone

Well Stone was really the goal, but needless to say an open mooring about a mile short looked very attractive, so here we have remained.

Yesterday we went to the Church of St Stephen in Great Haywood.  It was the first Sunday for a new vicar who gave an excellent sermon with no notes and promises to be quite a live wire.......hope the congregation enjoy him.

Parish Church of St Stephen, Great Haywood
Later we went to the Tea Rooms by the lock where we had booked a table for Sunday lunch.......the place was heaving but we had no trouble thanks to an extremely friendly and helpful assistant (I think she was really the dishwasher).   Good lunch too and we both fell foul of a pudding despite our good intentions.

It has been an excellent weekend here although we never did move onto the Tixall Wide.  We have discovered lots more lovely places to walk than we have done previously

The plot was for an early start and I dutifully had myself all ready to go by 7.30 when the heavens opened.....this was not forecast Mr Weatherman......so we sat it out for 1/4 hour and it seemed to go through so we made another attempt......blow me down, just as we had cast off another heavy shower appeared....still we weren't going far to start with as we wanted to use the sani station at the junction.

By the time we had finished watering two boats had appeared and gone ahead of us but after the first lock we were nicely spaced out and the rain had all gone.

We passed No Problem today, one of the bloggers I follow

We are still travelling in lovely countryside, it is hard to believe this is in the heart of the West Midlands......but after Stone, Stoke will be the next big place  and it will be becoming more industrial......and of course the Harecastle tunnel beckons......my delight!

However we have an even bigger tunnel to come, well Geoff has!    he last went through with John and Fiona on Epiphany in 2010, the first year you could steer yourself through.   If anyone has been through recently would be interested to hear experiences and any tips.

Total distance:7.88 miles
Elapsed time:3h56m59s
Locks:3
Bridges:17 
Average speed:1.99 mph (2.75 lock/mph) 


3 comments:

Sue said...

Lovely to see you both today, have a great time 'ooop norf' I am sure you will enjoy the tunnel Geoff and you the walk Gill!

BigJohn said...

Put a blindfold on about an hour or so before you expect to go through then you won't feel a thing ��

Gillygrove said...

Have you tried that then???!!!