LONG TUNNELS AND SHORT CANALS.

 

 The Holy Inadequate

Barlaston and another pub of course. We only spent one night in Stone, and after a quick shop at Morrisons, we set off and did the 5 locks to Barlaston. They didn’t seem to take us long, and after the last lock I was surprised to see it was only 12.45pm. It felt a lot later.

The pub is called the Plume of Feathers and is owned by the one and only Neil Morrissey, of Men Behaving Badly, and for those of you old enough to remember Boon. We have been in before but never spotted him, he does like to come and help out from time to time in the kitchen, or so I am told. We decided to eat in the pub, as there were things on the menu that we both fancied, I tried a Greek dish called Bifteki, garlic and herb ground lamb patties, stuffed with Feta cheese, char grilled, tzatziki and salad, whilst the Captain plumped for the MFC, or Morrissey fried chicken burger. Well our meals came and looked delicious, however there was something missing from mine, the tzatziki, which for those of you who don’t know is a yogurt and cucumber dip. I pointed this out and was bought a pot of something that definitely wasn’t tzatziki, it was black for a start. I caught someone’s attention and it was replaced by the right thing. After checking the menu I decided I had been given a tapenade. Oh well, they got it right in the end. The meal was lovely thought, and I would recommend giving the Plume a try is you’re passing by. https://plumeoffeathersbarlaston.co.uk/

Sunday, and the weather was beautiful. We set off in good spirits to tackle the 5 locks which would take us into Stoke on Trent. It was a good day, and we were in a convoy of 4 boats with nothing coming the other way. The boat in front of us was a single hander, so I gave him all the help I could, and the boat behind us had 3 people on board, so they helped me out were they could. It made for a very pleasant time, and there was plenty of chatting going on.

Old Bottle Kilns in Stoke

It didn’t seem long before we were moored up and off we went to the pub once again (3 days on the trot), naughty I know, but we couldn’t miss The Holy Inadequate, another one of our favourite pubs. They have their own brewery, and the Captain was very happy with their Milk Stout, followed by a 7% abv Ruby Mild called Hairy Sue’s.

https://www.facebook.com/inadequatebrewery67/?locale=en_GB

Next day and we headed off early to make it to the Harecastle tunnel, at 2600m long it’s one on the longest tunnels on the network. It also gets very low and narrow in places. It is one way working which is controlled by tunnel keepers at each end. As long as you turn up before 12 you don’t have to book, and we managed to get there about 10am just as a group of boats were starting their passage through, so we, after a safety briefing, tagged in behind them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harecastle_Tunnel

Entrance to the Harecastle Tunnel

It was a very crash bang wallop journey in places. We managed to catch the corner of the top box on a low part of the roof, and it was pushed about a foot back from its usual position. The Captain was worried that it had also damaged the solar panel that sits on top of the top box. But there was nothing we could do. Once out of the tunnel, sighing a breathe of relief, we stopped after the first lock and whilst I nipped to Lidl, very handy right next to the canal, the Captain checked the good ship Avalon Two for any major damage, but we got away with just a few scraps and bangs and the solar panel and top box were fine. He also did his good deed for the day, helping a boater with a problem with his gear selector cable, he could only get it in reverse, the Captain identified the problem, and by the time I got back from Lidl it was fixed and the boater was overflowing with gratitude.

The locks on this stretch are single side by side locks, and we were following another boat down them, eventually we caught up with the other boat and used the 2^nd lock rather than waiting for the one they were in. I helped out were I could and had a chat with the Captain and crew, they seemed some how familiar, and after the last lock when I was back on the boat, I mentioned to the Captain that they reminded me of a vlogger he watched, whose vlog was called ‘Boating on a Budget’ or the tight Yorkshire man. When we moored up in front of them it turned out I was right, and that’s just who they were Pete Bell and Dawn

https://www.facebook.com/wingingitboatingonabudget/

The Captain went off for a chat while I prepared lunch.

It was a lovely place to moor and we were soon joined by other boats.

Next day and 10 locks for me to do. There were quite a few other boats moving in both directions, some crew were helpful some were not. I got shouted at for opening the paddles to fast, fair enough its not my boat but a ¼ of a turn at a time is too slow. There is slow and then there is slow.

Between locks I managed to spot my first Woodpecker of the year, but we are still to see a kingfisher.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker

It rained the next day and we didn’t get up until lunch time. I took the opportunity to bake and cooked a Weetabix cake from a slimming world recipe. It will do for the Captains elevenses.

https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/recipes/weetabix-cake

With an improvement in the weather we headed off for Wheelock, and another 10 locks for me to do. Again the locks were a mixture of single and side by side locks, which made for an interesting day with plenty of other boats moving in both directions.

There is a pub at Wheelock The Cheshire Cheese, I didn’t remember it having a great selection of beers, but we had to give it a try, and were very pleasantly surprised with 5 cask ales including Penny’s Porter from Derby Brewing Company. So one very happy Captain.

Next morning before setting off we met up with Pete and Dawn again, and had a very long and enjoyable chat with them before heading off to do the 4 locks to Middlewich, and another pub, the Kings Lock, which is right on the lock. Again not a pub we know but again we weren’t disappointed with the selection of beers, the Captain enjoyed a couple of pints of Northern Lights porter from Brightside brewery.

At Middlewich we turned left and onto the Shropshire Union canal, but first we had to negotiate the Wardle canal which at only 154ft or 47m, is the shortest canal on the system and its one lock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardle_Canal

A quiet night in the MONW followed, and we started our cruise on the Shroppy in earnest next day.

Barlaston to Middlewich 25miles, 38locks and 3 canals.