We are sitting in the Admirals Airport Lounge, not quite appropriate for a narrowboat crew, waiting for our plane back to Tasmania. A beautiful early morning run back to our Pyrford mooring was followed by packing and the annual bertholders party……nice of them to hold it for us ! As usual the frantic last minute jobs always mean we rush off rather than savour our special spot we have here. Thanks to all at the SO Rally, especially Lorraine and Rico; and Sue at Pyrford who always makes us so welcome. We will be back next year for further adventures with Tasotter. Cheers

Having had a great time on the 4 counties ring we have been trailed back to Pyrford. After driving to Aston Chiltern and back we decided to go out again and maximise time on T42. Doing 3 locks we are moored near Send and I’ve spent the day rubbing back some wood and re varnishing. The insides of front and back doors look a lot better. Tomorrow we will start packing for our journey home.

Lazy Otter on her way home, thanks for a great trip Rico and Lorraine

Some beautiful DB7’s at Chilton Aston Martin

T42 back on our favourite River Wey Bankside moorings. Notice the solar array deployed, hasn’t had a lot of use….

We have been traversing the potteries area around Stoke, not the prettiest of areas but the reason why the canals were built in the first place. To transport fragile goods from the midlands to the ports of Liverpool and Manchester. Most of the original buildings are gone or derelict, but a few bottle kilns have been saved. We have also visited the more modern Wedgewood factory at Barlestone. A most interesting factory tour, visit to their museum and an amazing high tea rounded off a special visit. Tomorrow we pass Great Haywood Junction, where we joined the 4 counties ring, and thus complete our journey. We have a day to spare before being towed back to Pyrford. A week today we will be on our way home. Despite the indifferent weather we’ve greatly enjoyed our time on these narrow canals, and can’t wait to return.

Hang on Lorraine, Hazels steering isn’t that bad…….

Neither of us felt brilliant this morning, Hazel was sore and I had a terrible headache….But we pressed on and did 16 more locks, completing “Heartbreak Hill”, well done to the locking crew. Feeling a lot better we then did Harecastle Tunnel, taking 45 minutes to traverse and being wide enough for single way only traffic it’s quite a bit of engineering. From now on we can relax, only a few more locks before our lift back to Pyrford from Great Haywood Marina.

21 today,

21 today,

21 locks today !

Yes a big day for the locking crew, 21 done ( 9.00 am till 4.30pm over approx 10 miles ), plus 16 more tomorrow as we have moored up in the middle of a pound. Some of the locks are duplicated side by side; and some are very narrow. A boat coming in the opposite direction got stuck leaving one, had to run the engine at max revs and let some water down to flush him out !

We have just had 2 massive days of boating…..After completing the top northern part of the 4 counties ring we made a major decision to head north just a bit more, to visit the Anderton Boat Lift. On route we refuelled from, …..a fuel boat ! selling, fuel, gas, fenders, rope; all the consumables you need whilst cruising.

One of the 7 wonders of the inland waterways, the Anderton Boat Lift utilises 2 cassions to transport boats from the Trent and Mersey Canal down to the River Weaver, and vice versa. An amazing bit of machinery and well worthwhile the extra 8.5 hours of cruising. After our ride on the lift we have returned to Middlewich, and the ring proper. Only 2 more wonders to do this year, “Heartbreak Hill” and Harecastle Tunnel, more to come…..

2 days of rest ! First day having a massive Sunday towpath lunch prepared by Lorraine. Then today Hazel learning how to splice by Rico, then being shown around Chester by our Voyager friends John and Barbara.Thanks to them all for 2 special days !

An early 8.30 start this morning to deal with the Audlem flight of 15 locks. The girls did well with 12 locks done by lunch, time for a break then ! A great little town with an amazing canal shop, but I resisted buying some original art work. However the local butcher had some great snags, so these will be cooked up tonight ! The flight was finished by 2 and we have motored on doing 2 more locks so we can be close to Nantwich for tomorrow morning, when we hope to FaceTime my brother in Australia and wish dad a happy birthday. T42 is going great guns, and it’s certainly been great sharing the locking duties with Lazy Otter.

Yes the weather has improved, it couldn’t have got much worse. Yesterday we travelled on our own, meeting up with Rico and Lorraine at our evening moorings. It was interesting entering the Shropshire Union Canal, which had a little stop lock of some 6″ to protect its water from adjoining canals.

We got on the cut first today, leading the way through some very narrow cuttings, alternating with high embankments. Some spectacular bridges and a flight of 5 locks ensured a late lunch at Market Drayton. We just have to decide if we want to move again and moor up to the next flight, it’s a good’un. A flight of 5, then 15 more…..Hazel has bought herself a badge emblazoned with “lock labourer”, nobody seems to appreciate the heavy burden of command the skipper has…..