7 October 2023

Another early morning flight meant another early morning start. (When will I learn?)

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to clear security and customs. Gotta say, I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw the Duty Free Tulip Bulb shop….

Or the Heineken Bar already patronised …. but “when in the Netherlands…., right”?

We opted for hideously and expensively bad coffee (which came with a sachet of milk, 2/10, at least it was hot).

I got to watch time pass, with this clock, surely the best in the world!!! I was mesmerised!! The “man inside the clock” had his work cut out for him, as he cleaned the face, painted on the minute hand, occasionally cleaned away and readjusted the hour hand, stood to admire his handiwork before he had to start all over again. So clever!

A plane, a train and an automobile later, we were reunited with an old friend.

Those of you have followed previous exploits will recognise the Canal art for our dear old friend “Ellie McBoatFace”. She was our home four years ago and was about to be our home again, for the next two weeks.

Grahame and I arrived at Toby’s Carvery, Etruria, Stoke on Trent , and barely had time to down a celebratory drink before our partners in crime arrived.

It was great to have the old crew back together and it was an added bonus to have Ellie as our home on the high seas.

When we first met Ellie she was a young thing with a fresh outlook and a thick coat of paint. She’s a bit long in the tooth now and has a few bruises and scratches to show for the past four years. But overall, she is still very much ship shape and was rearing to get underway. So were we!!! After the obligatory induction chat, from the Black Prince Marina staff, we unpacked our bags, stocked the galley and took to the canal.

Despite a slight hiccup with news of a problem with a lock further along the canal, we are taking a chance and hoping it gets fixed by the time we arrive on Monday afternoon. We’ll take a little detour along the Macclesfield canal to stall our progress a little.

We headed out of Stoke, on the Trent and Mersey Canal, past the old pottery works and aimed for our 3 pm booking to pass through the Harecastle Tunnel.

This Tunnel at 2.6 km long takes approximately 30 minutes to pass through. The canal volunteer gave us our safety briefing (lights have to be turned on, horn had to be working, life jackets had to be donned) and sent us on our one way trip to the other side.

Judi and I took our positions in the pointy end while John and Grahame did the driving. It’s a cold, damp and eerie passage under the Harecastle Hill and although we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, it seemed to take forever.

We kept our eye out for the scary skeleton , and having missed it four years ago, almost missed it again.

Water here is a deep orange color, not from mud, but resulting from iron-rich springs nearby to the tunnel.

Not long after emerging safely, we arrived at the junction with the Macclesfield Canal. We took the tight turn and proceeded down uncharted (for us) territory.

In an amazing piece of engineering , the Macclesfield winds it’s way around and passes over the Trent and Mersey.

We encountered the usual canal scenery: bridges, cottages, canal boats, swans and finally, our first lock.

The lock was a very small one placed on the canal back in the day , to stop the passing canal traffic and force them to pay the toll for this section of the canal.

Judi and I were a little rusty in our lock setting and opening and closing technique. After all it has been four years. Fortunately there was local nearby to talk us through the procedure and it all came flooding back.

We moored not far past here and heading to “The Rising Sun“ for afternoon refreshments.

We had thought this might be our dinner venue given its canal side advertising!

We entered the pub, asked to see the menu only to be told that food would be available in two weeks time.

We returned to Ellie, prepared a light ploughmans style dinner from the galley stores and washed it down with a nice glass of wine.

Our card game of choice for this trip is Euchre. The girls challenged the boys and sadly were unsuccessful tonight

First Night score card: John 1, Grahame 1, Judi 0 and Jenny 0.

Welcome to Britain.!! It’s gonna be fun!