Catching up after the heatwave.

Firstly, my apologies for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks but to be honest it's been so flaming hot I have spent most of my time in the shower.

After my last post, where I had joined the Trent & Mersey canal at Fradley junction I spent a few days moving up the T&M and moored up in Willington where I handed the boat over to my eldest and his crew for a few days. Steve headed back down the T&M to Fradley and then continued north west to a small village called Weston near Stafford where I met him on the Monday afternoon.  The guy's had not only taken good care of the boat but I found the fridge held more beer than when I left it. Incredible.

I spent the next few days slowly cruising up the T&M through the canal side villages of Stone and Barlestone toward Stoke-on-Trent.  Barlestone is the only village I have passed where the local pub stops serving food at 6pm.  Call me Mr Grumpy but WTF!

On my arrival at Stoke-on-Trent the following day was pleased to see that the developers had retained the old bottle kilns as a feature in the housing development on the site of the old potteries.

Although the old potteries have been redeveloped the Bottle Kilns have been retained

 I was equally pleased to find the the Toby carvery not only stayed open to a sensible hour but also provided an excellent meal for £5.99 including four varieties of meat and as much crisp veg as you could pile on your plate. I retired replete that night.

Moving north from Stoke I faced the lovely Harecastle tunnel.  This is an unusual tunnel as it has no ventilation shafts, being designed in the days of "legging" a boat through the tunnel. It therefore has a very noisy extractor fan at one end which draws air through the tunnel to remove the engine exhaust and avoid boaters suffocating. It is also very low in places as you can see in the photos.

The wonderful entrance to Harecastle Tunnel.

I love the tunnel entrance - really feels as if you are entering a castle. The white chains hanging in the entrance are a guide to the tunnel profile and hight at it's lowest point.

Here comes the low section - Duck

 A very low and narrow tunnel. One way traffic, the tiny light you can see in the distance is a boat ahead of me.

The tunnel skeleton hiding in an alcove

Following Harecastle tunnel I turned onto the Macclesfield canal. Update to follow.