13th July '16

We had a great meal last night at the Star in Stone. 3 of us had steaks which were superb, cooked exactly right and so tender they just melted in the mouth. I'd definitely go there again if the chance arose. I also had a sticky toffee pudding but had to ask for extra custard. I like custard and I'd asked for lots so when this tiny little jug came I asked for another. They brought me one and it was lovely, but why couldn't they have just brought out a pint jug of the stuff? Otherwise it was all excellent. We chatted on for hours and then Helen and Brian came back to taste some of our 'malt'. Well Brian did. He found it hard to believe that it was made from cheap vodka with the Malt Whiskey Kit that I bought John for Christmas. He is now looking out for the Brew Boat so he can get some as well! 

Strange thing happened this morning. We got woken at 6.30 by an alarm in the boat, but not one that we have, Neither of our phones or iPads make that noise and in any case 6.30......does that SOUND like us (unless we have a flight to catch)? I got up and couldn't find anything and then it stopped. No idea what it was but I hope it doesn't happen again.

We finally woke properly quite a bit later and got ourselves sorted and were ready to leave at 11.00. No sooner were we underway than the rain started, half a mile later we pull in, moor up and put up the canopy. John put his foot down about travelling in the wet. I checked the forecast which said it would be dry by 12 so we kept an eye out and left again a bit before 12 after it had stopped raining for ten minutes.

We had a brilliant day. Even Stoke on Trent was good, all the locks in our favour and the last two had volunteers. We got to Westport before 4,30 and were moored up happily by the lake in no time. I've decided that I've got to get over my negative feelings about Stoke. Just because our first impression was of drunks all over the place, feeling nervous at the locks on my own (despite knowing that Paddy would rip out the throat of anyone who threatened me), and just a general sense of unease, to be honest we haven't had any trouble on subsequent trips and today I actually enjoyed the journey.

Looking down from the locks at Stone, second from top, almost every lock had a boat just coming out so everything went remarkably smoothly. The sun came out although it was still very cold thanks to the wind, that was again in our faces.

Some rather attractive cottages alongside the canal. Can't imagine what they probably cost, but they look wonderful.

The Wedgewood factory from the canal. We stopped and visited it on one of our trips and thoroughly enjoyed it. Such intricate work some of them were doing. Watching them apply gold leaf to plates etc. was unbelievably precise, and as for the hand painting.....just amazing, no wonder it's such a price when you see what's gone into it. I would recommend anyone visiting the place, John found it as interesting as I did. If you're in your boat there are some brilliant moorings just before where I took this and then you just walk over the bridge and up the road.

I took this with a sense of irony, but now I'm beginning to feel more tolerant about the place!

Still in my 'I don't like Stoke' mode, I took this to illustrate how much they don't like boaters. There are long stretches where it would be nice to moor apart from the concrete edges and in many places no areas of grass to put a pin in. This one would be possible at a push, but it just generally feels like they don't want us.

I remembered this from when we were here before. One of the locks in Stoke has quite a few bits like this where the stone has worn away and the woodwork behind is on view. It also means that water gets caught in the gaps and when the lock empties the water continues to dribble or sometimes spout, from the holes! Some of the locks have been upgraded, but obviously they can't be too worried about this one.

Bearing in mind that these locks are in the middle of the industrial heart of Stoke, with a main road running alongside and railways criss-crossing it along the whole length, this is the view from one of the locks. You could be out in the country, anywhere really. I was obviously beginning to soften at this point, having only seen a couple of drunk young men carefully stowing their empty cans discretely in the bushes behind the seat they were using.

Again, getting more friendly by the minute, this is the view back from one of Stokes locks, hard to believe the contrast with what's just the other side of the trees.

So there you are, the shock, horror of this evening's blog is that I'm not going to be nasty about the Stoke section of the canal again. We're going to come up and do the Caldon canal at some point and moor up and visit the Middleport pottery. They say a leopard doesn't change it's spots, but in my case they have certainly become less obvious! Whatever next?