So we’ve picked up the pace

After a very leasurly week going from Stone to Penkridge we have picked up the pace a bit. We need to get Dee back to Stone to get her train on Saturday, so we need to make sure we crack on. From Penkridge we sailed all the way to Autherley Junction, where we turned off of the Staffy onto the Shropy canal.

We stayed the night just after bridge 2 on the Shropy at Autherley. Just around the corner from the bridge is a large Morrisons supermarket and we needed some provisions.

The Shropy is quite an unusual canal, being essentially cut into or built atop the landscape, it tends to go pretty straight rather than following the contours of the land around it. So, quite often you can see for a very long way by canal standards. The other noteworthy thing is the canal edges have a bulge below the water line, meaning it is not possible to moor very comfortably just anywhere – you do really need to find proper moorings.

The first place we want to get to is a lovely little village called Brewood (pronounced brewed apparently) we went here before with Caroline and Steve (see way back in this blog) and really liked the place.

Next we want to go to Gnosall (pronounced nose-all) as we only had a fleeting visit last time.

After that we want to get to Market Drayton which means we are just over ½ way around. As long as we crack on a bit we should then be in good shape to get to Nantwich and then onto the middleport arm of the Shropy and then back to the Trent and Mersey. There we have heartbreak hill, so called because of the copious number of locks we will need to navigate and then we need to go through the Harecastle tunnel – which did not go so well for us last time. Anyway, that will be for another blog.

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