Homeward bound

We're making good progress on our way home. On Friday we tackled 20 locks, surprisingly there were very few boats on the move & we got through 13 of the 15 Audlem locks before meeting another boat. The fact that all bar one had been set against us was a tad unlucky, but we made up for it at Adderley where they were all in our favour.

We stopped for a brew half way up the Audlem flight

Working boat & butty started down the Adderley flight as we finished it.

On Saturday we went through the 5 Tyrley Locks, a flight partly passing through a rock cutting.

Approaching the bottom lock at Tyrley

We spent the night at Norbury Junction and woke up to our first heavy frost of the season. I wiped a mixture of condensation & ice off of the inside of the windows in the morning, no wonder it had felt a bit chilly in the night. The fantastic atmospheric scenery in the morning more than made up for any discomfort.

Chilly M

A misty Norbury Junction

The sun was trying to break through

Great effects with the sun & mist

M's chimney web

Our new mugs provided buckets of tea & warm hands

On Sunday we made it as far as Wheaton Aston, where we had an early finish when we discovered that the garage selling cheap diesel doesn't open on Sundays. For a saving of over 10p a litre we decided it was worth the wait. We've now made another turn for home onto the Staffs & Worcester Canal & have stopped just beyond Gailey, where it's blowing a hooly. Hopefully it will ease up after lunch, in which case we plan to make for Great Haywood this afternoon.