England - August 6, 2014

After breakfast I decided to walk from Willeymoor Lock to Povey’s Lock, supposedly ½ mile away.  Several others walked as well – but much faster than I (in my present condition, that doesn’t take much).

I’m sure the distance was less than a half mile, but that was fine.  At the moment, a little exercise goes a long way.  I waited for the boats to arrive and went through with Duchess.  Andy pointed out an old, restored, working canal boat, moored along the way.  At the Grindley Brook Lock No. 4 I got out as there were a couple of small shops.  One was operated by Valerie Reade, a very interesting woman who is active in the restoration and maintenance of Saturn, the working boat Andy had pointed out along the way (too quickly for me to get a picture).  She showed me around her garden which was gorgeous

and talked about the Saturn restoration project.  Saturn was a Fly Boat built in 1906 for the Shropshire Union Canal Carrying Company.  Fly boats were the express craft of the waterways as, running non-stop, they delivered perishable goods throughout the waterway network.  Saturn worked as a cheese fly, responsible for the fast movement of cheese from Cheshire and Shropshire to major markets such as Manchester.  Now Saturn serves educational purposes, helping school children and adults learn about the historic role of canal boats.

After leaving Valerie I walked past two locks to Duchess and got on to ride through the last two locks.  On the other side it became apparent we were going in the “right” direction, at least the one with less traffic, since 20 or 30 boats were lined up to go through the locks the other way, which might require a wait of 2 hours or more. 

Shortly after the locks we stopped at a water point to take on water.  These are located at many places along the way.  Boats carry hoses with bib cocks that will fit and are free to fill their tanks as needed.  Since it was getting close to lunch time, we had a slightly early lunch while the water tanks were filling and then set off about 1:45 for the longest stretch of canal with no locks, about 25 miles, some of which we’ll do today, some tomorrow.

During the afternoon the weather kept changing, from sunny and almost hot to cloudy, breezy, and a bit chilly.  Guess this is England (also Wales, at least some of the time, since we move back and forth across the border).

We moored for the night at 4:30 p.m. just before the Prees Branch of the canal, a stub end that goes less than a mile.  Five of us walked a short way along the Prees.  I returned ahead of the others to wash my hair and dry it outside in the warm sun while sipping a glass of wine.  Quite pleasant. . . .

Unfortunately, the head cold which began to manifest itself earlier today with a stuffy nose is developing nicely.  Bad back, head cold – I am falling apart!