Saturday 16 November 2013

Back on familiar ground

Hem Heath to North of Stone : 4 miles, 5 locks
To date : 955 miles, 669 locks


We're on the final leg of our journey for the year.  We do plan to get out of the marina a bit more this year... perhaps a few days cruising if there's a forecast with no risk of iced up canals.   We decided we'd moor for a couple of days at the Northern end of Stone.  The mile or so walk to the shops is nothing to us these days. 

There was no rushing this morning.  We just left when we were ready.  Our first lock for the day was Trentham Lock which we remember being a very picturesque location.   There was a real nip in the air today.  We got out the thermometer and it was barely 8 degrees.

We met boats both ways at Meaford Locks.  One coming from Stone had a good grizzle about boats not moving on from the visitor moorings.  We sure hope there isn't a repeat of last year where "continuous moorers" hogged all the moorings for the entire Winter making it near impossible to take the boat to the bottom of the locks at Stone to shop and stay overnight.  They even went as far as moving to the water point at 10pm to avoid someone else "stealing" their mooring.  Right at the end of Winter there was some sort of action and many of them moved on.  We're hoping something's done about it earlier this time!

We found good moorings just before Tina Paramore boat painting.  We had our lunch and walked into Stone for a few groceries.  The fridge was bare!  On the way back we bumped into a blog reader from nb Gala-Day and had a brief chat.

Barry and Carol have Kinver Canopies coming to make a template for their pram cover tomorrow.








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