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Westport Lake Visitor Centre, just past the exit from Harecastle tunnel.

Church Lawton to Barlaston.

Today, its up and at it! we are off to Stoke, via Hall green and the Harecastle tunnel. But first there is the rest of the flight of 12 locks to tackle, but these narrow locks are not like the big locks, they fill and empty quickly and on the whole the gates are much lighter to swing, though we find our windlasses are some times slightly too large down here, and you catch your fingers on the lock balance beam.

We arrive at the junction of the Macclesfield canal with out realising that we have already gone under it further back down the canal.

We arrive at the tunnel late morning, and we are just coming to a stand still, to try and find some where to moor, when all the boats in front start moving forwards, we think goody there will be room for us to moor near the entrance to the tunnel and have a look around. Then some one shouts, that all the boats in front are going through the tunnel in convey, and there is room for one more boat, if we want to follow. So we tag on to the end of the line of boats, quickly shouting all our details to the British Waterways bloke as we enter the tunnel mouth.

If we had been a few minutes later we could have been waiting there for several hours. So we felt very lucky.

The worst part of the journey was at the end, we could see the boat in front, as it had its rear doors open and the lights on inside, but he then closed the doors so we could no longer see the boat, it came invisible, (we think his dog was getting unhappy about travelling so long in the tunnel.) We then had to slow down and feel our way forwards slowly, just in case he had broken down. We soon hit the end of the tunnel and we where out.

Park with bird hide (Westport Lake) - Select a picture to see it full size.

Just beyond the tunnel there is a pleasant park where we moored up and had a bit to eat.  We then moved off and travelled through through the industrial Stoke, in its own way very attractive, with signs of large scale development going on.

Views of the potteries - Select a picture to see it full size.

We arrive at Etruia sooner than expected, choices do we need to go left or right? (you do not get choices very often on the canal. Fortunately John is with it, ( because he has read the guide book!) We take the lock to continue down the Trent and Mersey, watched by a large gaggle of people.

After a few more locks, the canal is pressed up hard against the A500 main road, which seems to get every where. Eventual the main road stops molesting the canal and it goes its own way. But all is not good yet, on the other side we have the advances of the railway line, but even this gives up after a while. (But never completely, it is always no more than a few fields away.)

Josh was going to leave the boat the day after tomorrow, so we decide to stop in Barlaston, which would leave us gentle cruise to Stone the next day. Other reasons, there is a space just the right size for us to pull into, there are local shops, what more could we want.

We notice that there are signs up saying, "Trains do not stop here any more!"

We stopped about 17:00 and me made tea, read, puzzles, computer. Drinks and so to bed.

Notes on progress.
Structures we went through
To many locks to count.
Tunnel - Harecastle

Places we go by
Church Lawton moored last night.
Macclesfield Canal.
Fishing competition.
Caulden Canal.
Lots of Stoke (Derilict.)
Etruia Barlaston - moored for the night.