Red Bull aqueduct and Poole aqueduct, Kidsgrove to Rode Heath.

Travelled 3.25 miles, worked 12 locks in a time of 2 hours 40 minutes.

Last evening with no TV signal, we got the DVD collection out and watched the new "Clash of the Titans" and we began to watch the new "Four Feathers", but with Keith snoring and me feeling like I needed my bed, neither of us bothered to see the end, we just headed off to bed.

After a fantastic nights sleep, we were awake pretty early as seems to be the norm these days. So I made us a cup of tea, before we were up and about. We were in no hurry to set off as we had thought of stopping below the Red Bull flight at Church Lawton, so we left our mooring at 9.10am.

No sooner I had cast off the bow rope, Keith shouted to hang on as there was a boat coming towards us, it turned out to be Bruce and Sheila off of NB Sanity Again, but they were on NB Bunnies Warren heading back to High Poynton and Braidbar Boats. We had a quick natter with them as we both headed in opposite directions, I have no doubt we will see them again sometime soon. When you come off of the moorings on the aqueduct, you have a tight left hand bend to get around.

This proved easy enough for us, especially as there was no other boat coming, thankfully we did not meet NB Bunnies Warren on the bend, because we may have spoilt the nice shiny paintwork and given Bruce and Sheila a heart attack LOL.

At 9.25am we turned off of the Macclesfield Canal at Hardings Wood Junction and back on to the Trent and Mersey Canal with its orange water from the tunnel.

I stepped off of the boat to work my first lock of the morning. Some of the paddles are very stiff and took all my effort to get them to move.

At lock 42 the second of my two locks, there were old floral tributes, Stoke City scarves, shirt and football boots, which meant that something tragic had happened here. I have since found out that 19 year old Mike Sutton died after hitting his head whilst trying to jump the lock. Such a tragic loss of life at such a young age, but this is nothing new. I cannot see why young people think it is a fun thing to do. This accident happened on the 3rd December 2011, which means the stone work would have been slippery and therefore very dangerous. On reading the news report, some people were calling for better safety measures and even lighting. None of these things will stop young people from tempting fate. Lighting will actually encourage more of this sort of thing to happen. It looks like many tributes have been laid for this young man, which means he was highly thought of, the problem now is all the flowers have died and are strewn along the lock side, just waiting to be kicked into the lock, which will be hazardous to boaters and their propellers. I can understand those who loved him want to pay tribute to him, but it is time the dead flowers were removed from the lock.

On the way down the flight someone had been leaving the bottom gates open on the pairs of locks, which meant more work for little old me. We exited the bottom of the Red Bull flight at 10.30am and were going to stop, but because it was so early we decided to carry on through Church Locks.

The Church Locks despite being pairs only have one lock navigational on both pairs. it is very sad to see locks in such disrepair. There was talk of them being restored, but it is clear nothing much has been done so far.

We did the Lawton Treble Locks and then moored up at Rode Heath opposite the Broughton Arms at 11.50am. We then did some work on the oil pressure relief valve on the engine, before I suggested we had some lunch at the Broughton Arms. This suggested was made with a little trepidation, because when we last ate there in 2006, the food was dreadful. The mash potato was out of a packet and the vegetables were cooked to within an inch of their lives. But we need not have worried because our lunch of Fish and Chips was quite delightful, as was the pint of Pedigree. So the Broughton Arms is now back on my list of places to eat. Tomorrow we will be heading towards Wheelock and beyond no doubt.

Chat soon.