Day 1 - 12 Mercia Marina to Stone

This year's destination is a moveable feast. We plan to visit the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals but water shortages due to a reservoir problem up there means (probably) shallower than normal canals.  It's an area we really want to see, but constantly going aground or having difficulty mooring is a problem so we'll ask people coming down as we approach and take a decision nearer the time.

Planned route from our base at Willington (between Shardlow and Fradley Junction on the map) west along the red route of the Trent & Mersey Canal to Harding's Wood Junction, then north up the Macclesfied, then south east on the Peak Forest

Other options are to continue up the T&M to its terminus at Preston Brook, or to turn west at Middlewich and visit Chester and Ellesmere Port.  The Llangollen Canal is also on the bucket list, but it's late to really do it justice. For another year!

We've done the T&M to Great Haywood several times and Jan did the T&M from there to Middlewich in reverse with Pete - so we're starting the blog from Stone, Staffordshire as that'll be somewhere we'll definitely be mooring for a day or two. Meanwhile, a few pics of the journey so far...

Leaving our mooring at our new home at Mercia Marina next to 'Anne'

 

Still in the marina (it's big!), passing the Boardwalk shops and restaurant

 

Approaching the marina boatyard, with cooling towers

of the now defunct Willington power station in the background

 

Exiting the marina under two bridges before the right turn onto

the westbound Trent & Mersey Canal

 

Properly en route!

 

NB Eagle at Egginton.  Egginton Brook is soon to be home to the 

first beavers in the area for several hundred years

 

Denis working the lock before Alrewas, one of our favourite villages on the canal

 

At Fradley Junction CRT services - it's also a bug hotel!

 

Denis closing lock gate above Fradley

Nudging through weeping willow

Tiny narrowboat Bumble

 

The Armitage Shanks factory

 

Site of the collapsed Armitage Tunnel - only wide enough for one boat to pass through

Fine figurehead 

 

Beautifully painted

Crossing Brindley Bank, an aquaduct carrying the canal over the Trent

 

Pretty sign writing

Working a lock

Lovingly restored cottage at Colwich Lock

 

Looking back at the junction with the Staffs and Worcs Canal at Great Haywood

Mooring up for the night

 

Fields alongside our mooring

 

Dusk flight of geese

 

Planks used when the lock is emptied for repairs (the roof keeps them dry)

Weather looking up

Beehives in the garden of a care home

Muscovy duck

 

Tranquil evening

 

Mist after heavy rain during the day

...and settling

 

Witty

Adding to our collection of quirky sheds

Tiny lockkeeper's hut with chimney

The half way mark along the Trent & Mersey.  Some day, we must see Preston Brook

Working the lock at Aston

 

 
 Brassworks Bridge, Little Stoke - with imitation Anglo Saxon arch