We set off at 9:45 this morning and immediately had to pass through Filance lock where we encountered a large collection of mountain bikers out for a ride.
At Longford lock it was easy to see that the whole lock has been rebuilt including new bottom gates. It is a shame that the steps across the top of the gates are not chamfered enough and so are prevent the gates from closing properly. This will mean the gates distort every time the lock is filled which is likely to promote rapid wear.
The south bound traffic on the M6 was stationary with Police and Ambulance blues running down the left hand lane that would have been the hard shoulder. I wonder if they get hampered by legitimate lane users.
We continued on past Acton Trussell and Stafford boat club (SBC) to moor at Radford Bridge where Graham had reserved a table for 1pm at the Radford Bridge Inn ( a Pizza and carvery establishment) – got to have a roast on a Sunday! The meal was excellent with a good selection of well cooked vegetables and you can have all four roast meats if you wanted to.
Once we were fed and watered, we carried on Northwards, past this excellent children’s garden to Tixall lock where we had to wait for two ascending boats that we being rope hauled through. It would appear that one boat was towing the other to SBC for work next week as it’s engine was broken. However, the owner of the towboat didn’t want to use his Lister engine to pass through the lock as he didn’t want to break it. It would appear that they had been annoying boaters at two other locks before Tixall.
A strange day but our reward was finding somewhere to moor at Tixall wide and so we achieved one of Graham’s long held ambitions.
G&B
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