Never trust the weather forecast! BBC showed light rain 30 – 50%, and getting worse as the day progressed. We decided to set off in good time, and had rain (quite heavy at times) most of the way to our mooring. We retraced our steps along the Leek arm with some challenging bends, bridges and boats moored in far from ideal places.

Toby had made another loaf of bread, the wafts of it cooking reached me at the stern and made me quite hungry.

Toby even pulled out the red Musto coat to keep him warm and dry.

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We stopped at Endon to fill up with water and drop off some rubbish. We decided against walking to the shop to purchase pump out cards due to the weather. We refueled ourselves on sticky date balls and flapjacks before heading off.

All five locks were set for us, as a number of hire boats were heading to Froghall, all five were done in 45 mins. We had a little chuckle to ourselves at a hireboat trying to moor using the bow line and wondering why the stern was kicking out (and a nicely coiled centre line sitting on the roof), we were too far away to offer any advice.

Toby thought there was something wrong when we went in to reverse, so once moored up, he went down to hatch to find a length of rope twisted on the rudder, his handy pen knife to the rescue and all sorted. A quick fuel check using the custom made dipstick from Peter, and still two thirds with 34 gallons.

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We’re cooking and eating mainly on board this holiday, with only one meal out so far. I’ve set myself a challenge to lose a stone while I’m away (otherwise I’d be at least a stone heavier with all the cakes and ice cream). Tonight’s dinner was mustardy pork with apples, rice and vegetables

Today we headed for Leek, which is at the far end of the Leek branch of the Caldon canal. The forecast was for rain in the morning, but as it was dry when we got up we thought we’d make the most of it. Of course, it wasn’t long before the rain started…

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Sarah moved the washing inside to dry, the socks ended up hanging above our bed!

4 locks later and we were passing under the aqueduct, that we’d soon be going over – not often that happens, but there’s one other canal-style flyover onto the Macclesfield we’ll be doing later too.

We both love a Jammy Dodger. A ‘Butty’, apart from being a sandwich, is also the name given to the unpowered boats that were towed along beside or behind a motor boat, it’s derived from the Welsh word meaning friend. We had a good laugh at this adorable pairing:

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It was a bit of a tight turn onto the Caldon, more of a 7-point turn than a 3-point turn for me.

We moored up just before the Leek tunnel, as we’d been told the moorings were nicer here than further on. We then explored the path over the hill to the end of the canal, and on to the shops to top up supplies. The signpost said 15 mins walk to the centre of town – I think they must have been Olympic foot race walkers to do it in that time though!

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We had a little extra entertainment as we returned from the shopping – the wind had picked up and a hire boat was trying to get in the tunnel but kept getting blown on to the bank and stuck in the mud. We gave them a hand and soon had them on their way again.

Apologies for the late post, but we had very limited internet last night so it’s had to wait til today.

Today’s aim was to reach Froghall, which is the end of the Caldon canal, have a wander around there and then start heading back. The Caldon canal gets very narrow and bendy in places, but Sarah did an expert job navigating us through the twists and turns.

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There’s also a short stretch of river, surrounded by some lovely woodland. It was all very tranquil and relaxing – apart from when the day-trip boat with 10 youngsters on it went past with their music!

We also had some fun when we ran aground on one bend, having moved over to make way for another boat coming the other way. After a little bit of maneuvering and a lot of shoving on the pole, we were soon on our way again.

At the very end of the canal there’s a short tunnel – sadly it’s very low and the markers at the lock before made it clear we wouldn’t fit through – so we moored up to take a look at the terminus on foot instead. The tea room there was very tempting, but we decided to be good and avoid the cakes!

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Our highlight of the day was watching the steam trains puffing up and down the Churnet Valley alongside the canal; being the bank holiday they had a special Staffordshire at War event on. We managed to get ourselves in the right place at the right time to get the pictures below.

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