Stone and beyond

Where did we leave you last? Ah yes, Westport Lake Park.

We set off from there and approached the top lock at Stoke-on-Trent.

Needing to top up with water and empty the loo, plus get rid of rubbish, we turned left on to the Caldon Canal, tied up, sorted everything out and then reversed back to the Trent & Mersey Canal. Not an easy manoeuvre as narrowboats aren't designed to go backwards. But still, we did it. What's more, we joined the queue for the lock at the same point we would have joined it if we hadn't gone off for the water.

At last, our turn next.

Another view of an old pottery kiln.

And further along the canal another reminder of times past.

We had a slow old day what with hire boats and others waiting for the locks to empty and fill. Just past Trentham lock is the Wedgwood factory which we visited some years ago.

Stopped at Barlaston and had supper at the Plume of Feathers, a pub owned by Neil Morrissey.

The food was excellent and these are just the starters.

I forgot to photo the mains, we just dived straight in.

But here are the puddings.

The next day, on to Stone. Stopped at the chandlery to pick up the spare part for the generator.

Moored up and had a walk around the town. Stone was the birthplace for the canal and every opportunity is taken to promote the fact.

A welcome plaque, much of which was made by local school children.

In the churchyard two memorial benches, one for the 1st World War.

The other for the centenary 1918-2018.

What's today? Friday you say - the day of the gales and flooding, you say.

Well we had a lovely sunny morning and pootled along until about 1:30 when we stopped for lunch near Hixon.

We found a very nice 48 hour mooring complete with mooring rings and information board - see below.

Five minutes after stopping the heavens opened for five minutes and then stopped again. This continued on and off for the next half hour.

Lunch was toasted sandwiches. Aha, you say, the spare part for the generator worked, you say. Well, yes and no. Yes insofar as I replaced the old capacitor but the generator still wouldn't produce any power. I then crawled about under the back of the boat and found a button with the legend 'push to reset'. I pushed, it reset and hence, toasted sandwiches for lunch. Grrrrr. If I'd done that before, we could have had toasted sandwiches every day.

Ah well, the joys of boating.

And lastly a view of the boat and the area that we have been going through.

Have decided to stop where we are now and weather the storm, if any.