There and Back Again

Our only lock for the day came early in our journey, a jigsaw worthy scene and, as is often the case, friendly boaters heading the other way. The rain was set in for the morning but spirits were not dampened.

A few old large houses overlook the canal with rather an air of Toad Hall to them, but Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger did not make an appearance today.

The canal follows a much more wiggly route with many blind bends. Having met relatively few oncoming boats over the last few days of course today would be the day with the most traffic. The skipper had to manoeuvre the boat to allow numerous others to pass the other way, inevitably at the narrowest points.

Passing over the Brindley Bank aqueduct, while it may lack some of the splendour of the Llangollen aqueducts, it is still an amazing feat of engineering given its age. A sharp bend took us into the outskirts of Rugeley and past some interesting and varied gardens. On the other side of the town we stopped to fill up with water and then for lunch.

Shortly after our lunch stop we encountered the remains of Armitage Tunnel. The roof was taken off in the 70s due to subsidence, but it is still a tricky, dark, narrow section. With no clear view of the other end, it is necessary to send crew forward to check that the way is clear before radioing back to the skipper. A short while later we passed the Armitage Shanks factory with the smell of fired porcelain in the air.

On the other side of Armitage it was time to wind and thankfully no other vessels appeared to complicate matters. Back past the factory, through the narrows and into Rugeley we were all rewarded with the sight of a kingfisher shooting past the boat and several times shooting out in front of the boat as we neared its perch. A little too fast and small to photograph.

We moored for the night just before the aqueduct.Read more