Stunning countryside

Tyrley Wharf to Audlem Lock 2  : 7 miles, 12 locks
To date : 883 miles, 600 locks 

We walked the half mile or so to the pub for dinner last night.  The pub was ok.... pretty similar to a lot of chains.  We walked "home" again and it was an enjoyable walk on a mild evening.  There's a concrete edge along the moorings and with the towpath being extremely muddy we walked carefully along the concrete edging with the light of our Dolphin torch.

This morning dawned rather drizzly.  We had decided we'd tackle the Tyrley locks regardless of the rain.  Anthony and Leanne arrived and once we had filled the water tank (a very slow filler at the top of the Tyrley Locks) we set off.  Anthony and I worked the locks, Mick steered and Leanne did brolly duty.  The lock workers did get rather wet in the rain!

Leanne walked back to the car to move it further along and we met up with her at the farm shop by lock 1 of the Adderley flight.  We stopped there for lunch and while we were chatting I thought it might be worth Anthony and Leanne making a trip to Chester for the afternoon.  They only have two days left and with it being so close it would be a shame to miss seeing it.  So, on the spur of the moment, off they went with arrangements made to meet up in the morning for more lock work.

Meanwhile, Mick and I decided to forge on through the Adderley five locks.  Much to our delight the weather picked up a bit after lunch and we cruised on after the Adderley flight through the most stunning countryside.  It must be up there among the prettiest we've been through on the canals.  The cloud blew in and out again several times.  We had blue sky with bright sun, rain and dark ominous cloud.  We even saw a rainbow.  The grass was so lush and green that it almost looked artificial.

At the top of the Audlem flight we stopped and I walked ahead to check out the moorings shown in our guide between locks 2 and 3.  The moorings before the first lock were nice enough but it was quite dark under the trees and there was no tv reception at all.  We moved on to below lock 2 where we have a lovely view and the whole mooring to ourselves. Lovely.

nb Winton's Folly will be on the move again tomorrow so we'll meet up with them in the next couple of days when they catch us up.