Off to a party!

Dental appointments kept - neither of us need any work done so that's good news!  We're off to a party at the weekend and need to be at Gailey on the Staffs and Worcester by end of play cruise on Wednesday so we're pulling the pins at Great Haywood ...

Whilst George had his gnashers looked at I took Molly for a walk, over the junction bridge past the Anglo Welsh base - it looks like all their boats are at home now

I took this picture of the River Trent on Sunday but felt that it didn't show the small weir to its full advantage ...

... so I took this one today, on 'sports' mode on the camera - much better!

... the walk continued through the trees...

... to the other side of the river; the canal is just to the left of the river and if you look closely (click to enlarge) you can see moored boats...

... I walked down the river and turned at the end of the field walking back past Shugborough Hall's Victorian Farm and the 'Tower of Winds!

Returning to those trees you can see the remains of the original bridge across the River Trent into Shugborough Estate; the railings you can see above would have led the coach and horses along the curved drive ....

... probably to these gates here on the current driveway and gate lodge...

... where I turned right back across that beautiful bridge over the river and back to Rock n Roll; it's time now for my dental check!

Reversing from the water point into the middle of the canal to point the bow into Great Haywood Junction bridge leaving the Trent and Mersey Canal and entering onto the Staffs and Worcester ...

... where we reach Tixal Wide, which is well ... still ... wide ...

... and the lodge is still where it was when we last came this way.

Milsom Bridge is a cross-over bridge which takes the towpath to the other side of the canal.

When canal boats were horse-drawn the horse would be led up this walkway and over the bridge to the other side ...

... this type of bridge would prevent the boatman from having to un-hitch the horse whilst he is led over the conventional bridge and re-hitched on the other side saving lots of time and effort.

We decided to cruise on until 3:30pm and start to look for a suitable mooring as soon after as we could - we eventually moored at 4:45 when it was nearly dark just past bridge 96.