Day 2 and 3 of our voyage. Weather showers and sunny spells. Warmish. We have travelled 28 miles and 15 locks north from our start on Friday. We stopped overnight at Aston-by-Stone on Saturday night and Ham Heath on Sunday night. Beautiful country side all the way. Lots of creatures.
Sorry about the technical information above but my bearded one wants me to keep a sort of log. I hope this will not encourage you to lose interest in my diary. In this regard, I am told it will get boring if I write every day and so this is a synopsis of our first two days.
It has been exciting dodging the showers and exhausting, it seems I might have walked most of the way! This is one of my favourite things.
We left Wolseley after breakfast on Saturday and cruised through some lovely countryside, for a while I sat peacefully on the back and kept my bearded one company and we saw lots of wildlife and he claims to have seen a kingfisher I missed it but I did eat a butterfly by accident. I was told it was a ” Comma”. We saw several Herons and lots of ducks and moor hens, he told me.
There were quite a few locks and this gave me the opportunity to walk from lock to lock with my long haired one who seems to be in charge of opening and shutting locks.
To start with I made a small error, I jumped off our long kennel when I shouldn’t have done and got my bottom wet. As a result I have been made to wear my going away outfit when we are cruising in case I do it again (apparently this makes it easier for them to hoik me out of the canal with a boat hook!) I should koko !!
I remember the routine now from last year, I sit tight either on the boat or on the shore until I am told it is O.K. Then I am allowed to jump. This routine I had forgotten in my excitement.
The sky went very black towards the end of the day on Saturday and we were just south of Stone and passing a new marina called Aston Marina at the time, we entered because we were curious and in case we needed shelter. They sold Adnams. I got tied up to a tractor whilst they all went shopping allegedly. See my photos. Me and the tractor, the sky as we moored up and a joke they played on me, the ball wouldn’t move! Lastly, this is me in my going away outfit, with my long haired one and her sister
They let us stay the night in the Marina.
There were quite a few locks on Sunday but they were mostly close together and so I did not walk so far and besides I was quite tired.
They left me in charge of the long kennel while they visited the Wedgewood factory and museum, we were quite close to Stoke on Trent. I strongly suspect that I am going to be left in charge again this Sunday evening, we are at Ham Heath – I heard them talking and they are going to visit Toby Carvery whoever he is.
My bearded one just kicked my drinking bowl into the canal and I watched it sink, I was unimpressed.
I will write again soon.
Douglas. xx
Sent from my iPad
What a great post. I particularly like the shot of the Cumulonimbus, that’s the big black cloud in case you didn’t know. I think you should post as often as you feel like. It’s up to us, your followers, to view your posts – and personally, I look forward to reading them. Please keep them coming.
Hello Douglas, we are not bored by your log because we are following your course on our map of the canal system and getting very excited as you move closer to us in the North. Mike is having trouble finding Ham Heath tho and we know that Toby Carvey is an eatery but there are millions of them out there so we dont know which one they went to. However I am sure that you will be pleased that they visit the Toby regularly as there are usually some tasty morsels. What a silly billy your bearded one is knocking your bowl into the canal, did he retrieve it? If not we have two very nice large ones going spare and will be happy to pass them on to you. We are also trying to get rid of a dog crate designed for a Mondeo estate or it can be used as a puppy cage, do any of your friends need one of these things? Ah! he thinks he has found it but it is spelt Hem Heath in our book, just past the Wedgewood pottery. I must admit to being worried that you would fall into the water again after that nasty experience last year, so am very pleased to see that you are wearing your life vest. Good to see your photos as well, we are enjoying them and did wonder if you would be stuck in that awful weather, we had thunderstorms over two days here. Bye for now, have a nice day
I had no idea that Toby Carvery was an eatery, they didn’t tell me that and certainly there were no morsels coming my way for all my diligence guarding and all. I just thought he must be a nice bloke, they all seemed quite happy when they got back. Sorry about the spelling mistake it was Hem Heath – he is getting old and careless. I would really love any spare bowls they seem to be in short supply, I am using a human cereal bowl at present. By the way, my going away outfit I think they call a harness, rather fetching I thought. My life jacket is in the cupboard and I have to wear this only when we get onto tidal rough water. We are cruising through Stoke just now, a late start, I will give a full account in my diary this evening. Thank you for the cage offer but have no need at present