Day 13: Brewood to Cheswardine.

Dear family, friends and followers.

Cruised 20 miles, worked 1 lock, in a time of 7hrs 5mins.

We had a very quiet night on our mooring in the middle of nowhere. We were awake early. I was woken by the dawn chorus and the sound of gulls mournful call.
This morning's breakfast was porridge for a change. Having re-lit the back cabin stove and stoked the saloon stove up, we left the mooring at 8.20 am.

Despite the weather forecasters saying it would be a dry day, we had drizzle again until lunchtime, when it did try to brighten up. There were more boats on the move today, we actually saw six other boats. It was lovely to see friends along the way, including blog reader Judith on NB Serena (waves). Lunch was toasted crumpets and coffee, which was nice and warming, because there was a definite chill in the air. We have noticed a few trees down along the route.

After the storms we have endured of late, CRT are probably on catch up. They were working on another tree trunk further down the cut as we went past. The one in the photograph above, was huge and only one boat width could pass it by, so it was a good job no one was coming the other way.

We descended Wheaton Aston Lock and pulled into the services to top up with water and I emptied the cassette, which was not full, but I emptied it anyway, just in case we should have to self-isolate along the way.

I like to have a full water tank. It also helps with the ballast, because if the fore end is to high out of the water, I cannot get my little legs up on it. Water tank full, we were then on our way.

I do love tunnels. Cowley tunnel is only 81 yards long, but it is solid rock. The cutting has been made by cutting through the sandstone. I can only imagine how many men it took to do this. It is truly amazing. When you think about it, they used picks and possibly explosives, but most of all hard graft. I cannot see anyone doing it like that these days.

It is funny what you see along the way. I love seeing this sort of thing, because it puts a smile on my face. We saw a few friends along the way as well, which is always a blessing.

This is usually one of the most photographed bridges, but with the scaffolding up, we could not get anything half decent. As the afternoon wore on, I began to feel chilly, even though I had a lot of layers on, so when we stopped at 3.25 pm I was pleased.

We are now moored up near Wharf Tavern, Goldstone Bridge No.55, Cheswardine.
Tomorrow we have locks to do :-)

Pop back soon xx