Another change of plan!!

Our mooring in Cheddleton

Bridge at Cheddleton

Not far ahead the river Churnet joins in with the canal and in periods of high rainfall can become a little lively.  There is a safety guage just before the river lock which would tell us if it was safe to proceed.   However even if it Ok when we get there, once we are through the other side and continue to the terminus, sod's law says with the present weather that we will not be able to get back again!!!  So we have decided to do another about turn.  If we had never been to the end there might be more of a reason to have a go but we went this way with Tickey about 8 years ago.

The mail was duly waiting for us in the little Post Office.

The book says that the turning point just beyond our mooring is up to 55ft and since we are 57.5ft one could be put off.  However Geoff was not put off on my behalf, he gaily waved me off and said I'd be fine!  He was walking with Barney back to Hazelhurst Junction.  In the event he was quite correct and you could easily have turned a 60ft boat.

So back to the junction and back up the 3 locks and a tight tight turn and back onto the Leek arm.  This is not the only tight turn on the Caldon, there are several and some interesting approaches to very narrow bridges......keeps us on our toes....

we nearly had some visitors

About an hours run brings us to the entrance to the Leek tunnel but the mooring here looks ideal, in fact NB Epiphany had forewarned us that it was a good mooring, so here we stay.   We cannot get right into the bank but we can get the bows in far enough for everyone to disembark.....and after the heavily wooded area on the route up it is beautifully open.
3.93 miles, 3 locks, 2hrs 26 min