Rowkin Rovings Blog

oved off at 10.30am heading towards the Caldon Canal. We ascended 5 locks and then had to do a three point turn to get onto the Caldon Canal. The junction was extremely busy with lots of boats waiting to either come up or down the locks on the main canal. It can get rather nerve racking when you are attempting a three point turn in a 60 foot pencil with no bow thrusters and lots of males offering uninvited advice. It gave Di great satisfaction to show them how it is done having heeded none of their advice. One of the things that has always struck Fras and I as most peculiar is the fact that all the men sit on the back of the boat driving whilst the women do all the locks which are extremely heavy to wind up as well as push open the lock doors. Steering the boat is just a matter of practice and doesn’t take any brawn though a good depth perception is an advantage. The more you do it the better and smoother you get at it. We are quite the anomaly on the waterways.

Lunch time stop.

The Caldon Canal is extremely narrow and winds through parts of the town called Hanley which is in the Pottery country. Cruising through suburbia one felt like we were in the middle of Coronation Street as there were rows and rows of two up and two downs with front doors opening right onto the pavement and ginnels running between the back of the houses with no grass but just cobbled small back yards.

Old pottery kilns that are dotted around this area.

It took us 6 hours of cruising today to get to our location of Milton where we will bunk up for the night.

We are finding the second bed that is actually two singles made into one double not being particularly comfortable as there is the gap between the two mattresses. Did a little bit of lateral thinking and leapt on Gumtree which is our Kijiji equivalent. There was a guy selling two double mattress toppers that were brand new for £20 so rang him up and all going well we will meet him in the Foaming Quart pub tonight for the handover and no doubt a beer.

Animals bones were crushed to create the bone in fine china…

So far our internet coverage along the canals has been surprisingly good. This is not to say that this will last though.

The Motley Crew

Toque waiting for Di who was in the bathroom.