Bartimaeus

While we have moved slowly recently, it hasn't been aimless. We have a destination and a train to catch by Friday. We are still not in a rush and enjoying the countryside.  Shane was mildly disappointed to find his walk into Weston to get milk at the convenience store was in vain as inconveniently there was no shop there.

While I was waiting for his return a cyclist stopped. He seemed to be checking a map on his phone. I went out and said hello. I wasn't sure if I could help his navigation but I might have had a better map app - the OSMand map has a boat mode that shows canals more clearly and is generally clear to see. He told me he was going to Kendal and had started in Kidderminster. He had a tent but not much luggage. I remarked that the towpath at Kidderminster was much wider and smoother than it was here, much harder going. He seemed to know he was near Weston, the next stop on his route. looking I pointed to some houses and said it was just round there and my husband had just gone to the shop. I didn't know yet that there was no shop. If I had known I might have offered the guy something to eat.

High above we had seen a hot air balloon. I have know idea how they manage to steer and navigate a route at all.  I couldn't see it's flame and it seemed to float over silently. Perhaps it was too far away.  

Shane returned and I cooked. Luckily I wasn't relying on particular ingredients. Shane was not expecting such a good sunset. There was a little fluffy pink cloud but not the fiery drama of the previous two nights, but I had a view of the moon behind.

The next morning was very misty. We have reached that season when that's a regular occurrence, but it tends to brighten up quite quickly. It isn't like the Edinburgh haar that hangs around all day.

Sure enough it was soon a bright day and we set off promptly. Shane had a video chat so we travelled in the morning sunshine.

We passed a wharf full of tugs. They had suitably strong names like Atlas or Endeavour. Handy to know there is a rescue service and though they looked old they had mobile numbers on each one, so we hope they are still in business.

One canal side house was striking in having an American style porch on the front and some signage suggesting a love of US travel, or at least one particular route.

The old East -West route was put together from a few shorted roads and some parts were never fully 'paved' as they say, and they had a heyday in the early twentieth century before a network of interstate national highways were purpose built and traffic moved off Route 66, except as a nostalgia tour. 

There was a field of cows of multiple breeds, calves and some still pregnant, and some were even joining us in the canal.

There were a few people taking advantage of the lovely weather and I made a quick change of course when I had planned to go round an overhanging tree but visible through the leaves was a bit of movement and I was on the wrong side to pass. I nipped, as well as a very slow boat nips, over the other side. There was a regular exchange of 'always on the narrowest bit' with other boaters as we passed each other on a fairly windy (snaking) windy (blowy) day.

As we saw another boat approaching near a narrow spot, we slowed to meet where it was wider. As they passed the driver called 'might have known it was an Ortomarine boat' to us, whether by slowness or silent travel I can't tell. I hadn't recognised it but had a look at the name and it was one I knew. Zaniah is a newer boat than Bartimaeus but it is described on the website as "our most traditional looking boat to date" - no wonder it wasn't instantly recognisable, but it is modern on the inside and built as a parallel hybrid, as Bartimaeus was originally.

Shane worked us through the only lock of the day, before we looked for a mooring and hopefully excellent WiFi for his chat.

When we found our mooring it was opposite another field of varied cows plus a bull sniffing around his herd. 

During the afternoon while Shane chatted, outside, they moved nearer and some came for a drink. His chat didn't disturb them obviously.

The bull moved down too for a sniff and scratch on the hedge. He didn't seem thirsty.

Another boat had come to moor behind us and I recognised it as another electric boat, Moonlight, that I had met at a lock a couple of months back, where he asked me lots of technical questions and was able to answer them himself, when I couldn't. I wished he would have a conversation with Shane in stead. His partner had said she was exactly the same and the only question she knew there answer to was that they had lithium batteries. We went out to see them and as they moored up, I greeted him with "Hello and the answer to your question is 2 kilowatts!" He recognised us then. They have a very smart boat with a water filtration system that means they don't need to fill a water tank. That is usually the reason we have to move.

The next day we moved on towards our goal, not water but Stone. The cows had vanished but we soon met another field of cows, this time mixed with sheep.

I took over driving for a bit. There were a number of bridges with wiggly approaches and different shapes. This one was hard to read the number due to the ivy. It had a build out on both sides so was much narrower than it seemed from a distance, and on a bend of course! No doubt the build out is an attempt to protect the bridge from boats and the boats from the low arch.

As we are slow, we often wave boats past and one approached that was very brightly coloured at the front with rainbows. I could see the name was Rainbow but only as it passed did I recognise it referenced a very specific nostalgic Rainbow for those who watched avidly in the 70s - not me as I didn't have that channel.

There was a lot of erosion at the edge and odd pillars of clay and a submerged support which was now a hidden hazard and not supporting the land.

Shane had taken on the locking again. The locks are very mossy. Despite being very deep they must be getting some light down there.

I noticed a milage sign showing how far we were along the route of the Trent and Mersey. Once we got high enough I hopped off to take a picture, while Shane chatted to a passing electric cyclist. I had been annoyed to find that I had forgotten to get a sign we had been moored next to the night before and the next one we passed was rusty and grotty. I was surprised to find we were right in the middle. Shardlow is by the Trent junction and Preston Brook is where it meets the Bridgewater.

We looked for a mooring on the outskirts of Stone and had a walk along looking for where we could leave it long term. A man told us that there had been a relatively new change but that it had retained the history as the old brewery symbols were built into the new pub. 

Another old feature was a pedestrian cobble tunnel beside a lock. There are four locks and it seemed quite busy. This was the next day's job as we saw less crowded moorings nearer the station but on the other side of the locks.

The next day we set off and Shane again grabbed the windlass. Stone was a place proud of its canal heritage. It was where the idea for the Trent and Mersey began.

The man on the boat joked about us photographing his woodpile.  Alongside a lock there was a large piece of wood. It is a sculpture of a woman, Christine, who was raped and murdered by boatmen she had paid to take on a journey to London. The men were caught and punished with hanging or transportation. 

I emerged from the lock to a boatyard on one side and moored boats on the other.

I was approaching the old brewery and modern bar that the man had told us about. It certainly looked a busy spot. Round the corner Corner I saw the brewery is very much a going concern and they had the new writing on top of the old. In the past this brewery used the canal to transport beer barrels to Liverpool and Hull and from there exported internationally.

Modern houses at the side had some local history on their patio. The movement of Staffordshire china and pottery was done by boat too. I don't think they moved gorillas.

One lock needed two of us to open the lock and it almost needed three. Once I had to get help from a passing woman who saw me trying to push to no avail when I got pushed in to the side by the exiting boat. "Sometimes it just takes two" she said as she went on her way. Ths tunnel got narrower on the way through. 

It was an interesting last mile. Not even mooring was as simple as it seemed as some of the signs indicating length of stay were missing or hidden. We are not far from another historical feature, Fellows, Morton and Clayton was the largest canal transporting company in England with headquarters in Birmingham and about 35 depots all over the country.

We had a look in to Stone. I saw a nicely decorated milepost. It had taken us a long time to go two miles - 2 miles packed with history and still very much a busy waterway.

Below the post I saw a plaque and was surprised to read that the mile marker was originally funded by the United States, an odd international link between two inland waterways an ocean apart. I don't get the impression the Canal Society of New Jersey has a current waterway system.