'Quidditch' Milestone

After breakfast (Friday 18th) we set off to cover the remaining section of the Caldon Canal and then back onto the Trent and Mersey main line.

It turned out to be a very long day.
Having navigated the un-savoury part of the canal we got held up for at least 90 minutes at Etruria staircase lock in a group of 4 boats. These locks are extremely slow on filling and the top lock has to be re-filled before another boat can proceed. The Etruria lock is the only one of it’s kind in Staffordshire, thank goodness!
Turning South back onto the mainline Trent and Mersey ‘Quidditch’ reached somewhat of a milestone recording her 1000th hour of cruising. We decided to progress thru’ the built up area of Stoke-On-Trent in the late afternoon. At around 6pm we finally moored for the day just North of Trentham after an 8hour stint.
Our plan now is to gradually make our way back down to our home base at Wigram’s where we need to moor for a week to attend some family events. Then we’ll be setting off again for another 3 weeks out. Where has the Summer gone? We can’t believe that last night we had to put the central heating on as the temperature plummeted! August weather has so far been a disappointment.
Over the weekend we laid up at the visitor moorings just after bridge 104, a stones throw from the Wedgwood Factory.
On Monday we continued down the short distance towards Stone and gave up around 1pm having been forced to queue at every lock. This time of year is one of the busiest with holiday boats and particularly on this stretch with boats completing the Four Counties Ring. After mooring we cycled into Stone for provisions and lunch. On our return we met one of the holiday boats who'd been behind us earlier at a lock still in a queue only 2 locks on, we'd been gone 90 minutes!
Tuesday afternoon we took a steady pace down the Trent Valley mooring just prior to Great Haywood Junction where the Staffs and Worcester Canal connects.
Wednesday started off not too bad despite the forecast of rain but deteriorated quite rapidly as the day wore on. We moored eventually at around 4.30pm in torrential rain and thunder around a mile from Fradley Junction. Tonight (Thursday 24th) we’re moored just north of Tamworth having taken the turn onto the Coventry Canal at Fradley, stopping briefly for lunch. Amazingly there's not a cloud in the sky!