The Four Counties Ring - week 1

Leaving Newark, the flow was really strong and we fought it all the way up. This is Newark bridge with The Barge restaurant on the left.

 We passed the haunting spectacle which are the remains of the castle and carried on into the lock.

Coming out of the lock we began our journey to Nottingham for our first night.

My boys eating their breakfast as we took it in turns on the tiller.

Martin always the comedian!

Richard and his brother Ian who met us at Swarkstone lock (South Derby) with an update on the generator repairs. He took Richard and Ryan for some much needed munchies buying! These boys take some filling up!

Martin managed to average a book every 3 days, and they weren't thin books either. The fishing was slow though!

This was the narrowest bridge we had come across being about 8feet wide and so shallow it was slow to get through, just after Burton on Trent, Tatenhill lock.

 

Alrewas is a popular, pretty, quiet stopover for us and a chance for a bit of shopping and fish and chips!

Martin looking like it's all getting a bit boring and wishing I would leave him alone. He was more chilled than Ryan though, who calls it the prison ship - charming!

If anyone has seen Toy Story, you will recognise my childest remarks about these gates being 'angry eyes' gates! They are so cute being shortened and bent to fit in with the close proximity to the bridge. Bloody hard work opening and shutting them.

Richard steers the boat out of the Alrewas lock.

"It always rains when we come here" says Ryan.

It continued to rain as we carried on through the locks at Fradley Junction, so much so that a complete change was called for when we stopped at the shop there! Instead of going down towards Coventry we carried on on the Trent and Mersey canal in order to get to Rugeley for the night. This was the Armitage Shanks factory, a huge site with Spode pottery further along inviting you to visit their museums etc.

The road is well below the canal at Armitage, which feels quits strange! I always wonder if the canal had ever breached and the beautiful properties flooded. Doom, gloom, but it could happen.

Sweeping around the corner, there is a blind bend with a bridge over it and a narrow 'open' tunnel the other side where only one boat can pass. I jumped off and ran through to check if anything was coming. It was so dark, Richard couldn't see me gesturing to him to come in, so I had to run all the way back!

 

I jumped back on once Richard was past the railings. This was originally the 'Plum Pudding' tunnel, a dramatic unlined bore through the rock face. Subsidence induced by coal mining necessitated the opening out of the tunnel and concrete lining of the canal banks.






Hawkesyard Priory and Spode House - day spa and golf course - very grand! I imagine the enrolment fees are as impressive!

Bridges passing over the canal on the approach to Rugeley.

 Weaving through Rugeley the aquaduct goes over a very tranquil Trent.

 

Martin pulls the boat in with all his strength.

Talk about ornamental. A landowner didn't want just any old bridge over to his land!

Aston-by- Stone marks the halfway point of the Trent and Mersey's route from Preston Brook to Shardlow, so we thought it warranted a photo. Getting the dog in as well was easier said than done!

nearly! We stayed in Stone overnight just a few locks further and that would mark the first week of the Four Counties tour.