Grass and sausage meat

Nine week cruise - day 52 - Monday 22nd August 2005

Cheddleton Heath to Etruria via Leek

Up at 0700; under way at 0720. Our aim today: to get to the end of the Leek Branch. This was to be rather easier than yesterday's end-of-navigation at Froghall. Leek Tunnel has rather more headroom than Froghall Tunnel. We winded at the recommended spot and reversed to the very end of the canal. Here we tied up and walked to Morrison's to stock up. One item we bought was a pack of North Staffordshire Oatcakes - delicious with all sorts of savoury or sweet fillings. Back to the boat and under way again at 0900.

With not far to go before Etruria Mike stopped to talk to and photograph a man on the towpath who was pulling up grass and stuffing it into sausages in his hand. This, he explained, was to feed the birds. I'll have to ask Mike for copies of his photos.

At 1630 we tied up outside Festival Park Marina in Stoke-on-Trent and said goodbye to Mike and Fearghal. David got some more supplies from Morrison's. At 2000 we lifted the lift bridge and moved into the marina, where Shadow, our shared ownership boat, was moored. Oops! We should have checked beforehand that that would have been OK. The grumpy marina man asked us what we were doing there and made it clear we weren't welcome. So we moved back to Etruria Services. We'd just started eating our lamb chops.

No photos today, I'm sorry to say. What had David been up to?