Saturday 24th April
Despite the charging fiasco and the dog walking problems we had a lovely few days moored near Shugborough Hall but it was time to move on. We needed water for a start so we made our way down to the water point at Great Haywood Junction – where the world and his wife had the same idea! We moored up miles away from the tap and observed the comings and goings through the binoculars so we could work out when it was our turn! Meanwhile the nice chap at Anglo Welsh said I could use their Elsan disposal which was really handy as there isn’t a sanitary station until Stone and we aren’t planning on getting there until after the weekend.
It took ages to get to Weston, even though it is only 3 miles and 3 locks from where we were! There were quite a lot of boats about today being Saturday. There were queues at all the locks obviously but that’s boating, you can never work out how long it’s going to take. It has been a beautiful day and it was nice just standing round chatting to people while waiting for the locks. You learn a lot by talking to people. For instance we now know where it is safe to moor in Stoke, what it’s like going through the Harecastle tunnel, how shallow it is on the Macclesfield etc. All very useful information.
We got to Weston about 1-30pm and had to take George to the pub. This was not a difficult task as you could trip up and fall in the Saracen’s Head from the mooring! We got there before he realised. There is another pub in the village called the Woolpack which we will endeavour to get him to tomorrow. As we are now moored about half a mile outside the village this could prove difficult!
Ken is currently having a very productive evening’s fishing, practically getting a fish a cast. Luckily for you I have only taken one photo! As he has now taken to fishing from the kitchen hatch there is water, fish scales and slime all over the kitchen – lovely!
