Thursday 27^th September. Slightly worried when we woke up this morning, there was a strange bright light in the sky – most unusual!

Wall to wall sunshine, what a lovely surprise. The canal was beautifully calm and the reflections almost flawless.

Here’s an action picture of me stepping across one of the lock gates.

On most narrow locks there is a single gate at the top and double gates at the bottom. When operating the locks this way round, on arrival Brigid hops off, opens the paddles, fills the lock and opens the top gate. I take the boat in and we swop round. I open the bottom paddles, empty the lock, open the gates and Brigid takes the boat out. Now the reason we swop is because Brigid’s legs aren’t long enough to step across the gap. According to H&S you really should walk back up to the top of the lock, cross there and walk back down to the bottom again – this is the safest way to do it. Unfortunately it can mean that you’re running up and down a lot of the time. So, making our own H&S assessment, I step across the gates, as do many other boaters. Sometimes there is a convenient bridge that you can use and you will remember a picture of a split bridge on one of the earlier locks but bridges cost money and some canals just don’t have them. As we were passing one of the boatyards we saw this crane being prepared to lift a boat from the canal onto a trailer for onward transport.

I would have liked to have watched the whole procedure but we were travelling too fast for them. A little later we got a good view of the M6 motorway – the constant noise is always there in the background.

Second lock of the day and we are waiting for another boat to go through before we can use it ourselves. You will notice that the sun has gone and I am wearing my boaters’ mac!

All the ground alongside the canal is waterlogged. We are following along by the River Penk which is usually a small stream that often goes unnoticed. Today it is a different story.

Another pretty lock approach at Tixall lock.

After the lock comes Tixall Wide, a veritable sea in canal terms.

The Wide was dug out when the canal was being constructed because the owner of Tixall House did not want his view compromised by the canal – a lake view was acceptable to him. Alas, the house is no more but the gatehouse still stands and work is going on there.

We have now left the Staffs & Worcs Canal and turned right onto the Trent & Mersey again.

Have moored up at Great Haywood for the night and the reflections are beautiful once again.

This street in Great Haywood was built around the turn of the 18^th Century when the village was bought up and demolished by the owner of Shugborough Hall so that they could have more privacy in their park.