Narrow boating weekend

We had a lovely weekend on the narrow boat. We met Martin and Victoria in Cheddleton which is on Caldon Canal on Friday night after a very long journey down from Newcastle. We moored up on this beautiful spot in the middle of nowhere and had a relaxed evening.

On Saturday morning we headed up the canal towards Stoke on Trent. The weather wasn't the best but the rain wasn't too bad. The countryside was beautiful. At some point we went under a aqueduct that had a canal running on it. Unfortunately there was no boat crossing it when we went under so it just looks like us going under a bridge. The boat is about 60 feet long so the two small figures you can see in the end of the boat are Martin and David.

There were quite a few locks on the way and it was good fun doing them. If we had been on the boat for a bit longer we would have got seriously muscly arms...

Victoria and David opening the lock.

A wonky picture of me peeking through the front doors of the boat.

Me & Wiggles sitting on the side of the boat.

We moored overnight in Stoke. David and I slept in the boat man;s cabin which was traditionally the part where the boatman and his family lived. It was very cosy...smaller than or bathroom and in the oldern days you would have had a family living there. It was a bit like camping but nicer. People also used to be a bit smaller so we had to sleep a bit diagnally in order to have our legs straight! It was really nice waking up in the morning, hearing the birds and odd passing ducks making noise.

On Sunday we had a lazy morning and then headed to Congleston via Kidderminster on the Trent and Mersey canal. The sun came out for a short period of time just before we were about to enter the Harecastle Tunnel for the next 40 minutes! And when we got out on the other side it was cloudy again.

David got off at Kidderminster and very bravely cycled back to the car (as we had gone through the tunnel he could go all the way along the tow path and had to take a 'short cut' through the Staffordshire moorlands with some pretty big hills to cycle) meanwhile we carried on to Macclesfield Canal and headed towards Congleston.

It was nice to go away for the weekend and we both really enjoyed ourselves. Apart from doing the locks there wasn't much to do so we chatted a lot and I did some knitting. All in all we had a lovely weekend and definitely prefer narrow boating to sailing. Moses also had a lovely weekend with Alan and Jackie. We did see quite a few dogs on the boats so once he is a bit more docile and mature we might take him with us...but that might be good few years yet!