Had to start the day with a post of the glorious 'son-rise', and the day just got better and better and the sun came through and the clouds disappeared over the horizon.
Now that I have the book in front of me I can tell you that we climbed through 17 locks before lunch. The first three (29 feet) were Booth Lane Locks - all straight forward and soon climbed. We moored up for breakfast, and, that meal over, continued past the village of Ettily Heath, Yeowood Farm and one of the biggest sewerage works we have ever seen. It looked as if much of the works were no longer being used as many of the huge circular beds were overgrown with lush foliage.
I must tell you about the people we meet as we travel along the canal
* The narrowboat owners - these folk hold themselves aloof from us mere "renters" and usually make some comment about the way we are, or are not, doing things. John nearly had his head bitten off by a lady owner when he offered to open a paddle for her. "Get....your...hands...off...that...paddle". When one passes moored boats the owners ALWAYS tell you to slow down with an imperious flapping of their hand up and down. I sometimes feel that we could be going past in reverse and they would still tell us to slow down!
* The fishermen - these fellows sit along the bank of the canal with piles of equipment carefully gathered around their chair and hold very, I mean very, long fishing poles right out across the canal. At the end of the poles they have a microscopic float from which dangles a worm/grub/?. When we approach (very slowly) the sigh is easily heard twenty meters away as they either raise the poles high in the air like some great border post, or shuffle it backwards hand over hand through the hedge to avoid having it being hit by the boat. Today we sailed through a fishing competition. Twent or so fishermen were seated every five metres or so down the bank and, as we passed, each gave us the treatment. Ihappened to be at the helm at the time and John and Stan were sitting up in the bows. Later John told me that he greeted each one with a cheerful "Good Morning", to which most fishermen replied with a scowl. Except the last man (could he have been a new fisherman who had only recently been tagged on to the end of the competition, and therefore didn't know the rules?) When John greeted him, he was most talkative and chatted away as we went by!
* The walkers - the walkers are obviously out on the towpath because they want to be there and are enjoying their walk, so when we wave and greet them, they nearly always greet us back, or wave to us. There is, however, one group of walkers, cheerful though they may be, who are not top of our pops. These are the walkers who are taking their dogs for a walk. Up and down the towpaths there are pleas from British Waterways to dog owners to clean up after their dogs, but some don't and they leave a nasty surprise in exactly the spot where a crew member is jumping off his/her boat to walk up to work on a lock. Yuck!
*The other renters - we are a happy lot, us renters. When we meet up at locks we chat together about the routes we are foillowing, the weather, interesting information about the canal ahead and the pubs where we had our last meal. We help each other lock up and lock down and really make the Waterways a very happy place .... if it wasn't for those aweful owners!
* The professionals - every now and again we meet up with someone from British Waterways who give us some really good advice, like "noisy up, quiet down" regarding the use of the ratchet when opening or closing a paddle, and how to fill a lock when locking up to avoid the surge of water that rushes in from the front paddles, races under the boat, hits the back gate, creates a tsunami and hurls the bow of the boat (and the startled helmsman) crashing into the cill. Always curteous and understanding these men are a great attribute to British Waterways.
And so to the village of Wheelock. Perhaps this photo will help explain the name of the village. Amazing to think how old this village is!
The real work of "Heartbreak Hill" starts here, so after we had filled our water tank and done some shopping at a convenience store in the village, we made a start on the 26 locks that are to be found over the seven miles between Wheelock and Harding's Wood.
The ten locks in the Wheelock Flight raised us just under 80 feet. We were travelling with "Six Men in a Boat" and we helped each other through the locks. This flight of locks was originally built as duplicate locks, meaning there are two locks side-by-side. Sadly over the years some of the locks have fallen into dis-repair and so in places there is only one lock instead of two.
The last of the ten locks brings one to Hassall Green and then there is a pair of deep locks called the Pierpoint Locks (raised us 15 feet). Next to these locks we saw the ruins of two old cottages, they looked like they could have been beautiful in their day. Pearson refers to them as 'The Potter's Barn'. We then had a break from locks as we passed Chellshill Farm. This is a huge dairy farm with Friesan cattle in the cropped green fields.
The next locks were Thurlwood Locks which raised us a further 19 feet and brought us to Rode Heath and "The Broughton Arms" where we had lunch. (See previous blog)
Afetr lunch we journeyed on, still on the Trent and Mersey, through Lawton Treble Locks, Hall's Lock and Church Locks - raising us a further 56 feet.
We decided that we had done enough for the day, and, finding a quiet spot on the canal bank moored for the night. While we had a cup of tea and read the Sunday paper the dusk drew in and we were given a most amazing sunset. I end this post with this picture.
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