Westport Lake

A lovely site this - a welcome breath of fresh air and rural tranquility after a long haul through Stoke!

Set off this morning in glorious sunshine with blue sky and puffy white clouds. This was brilliant:

The boat was called Wombat and was 55 ft long and it's owners were defintely antipodean! Always good to start the day with a chuckle and this certainly did the trick!

It was somewhat sad to pass by the 'old' Wedgewood factory. I took another shot of it as a kind of lament to its past.

Onwards through Stoke. An uneventful passage in the midst of several boats going up and several coming down. It was good to have the company to be honest as I negotiated kids on mini motorbikes and drunks.

I entered the top lock at Etruria in blue skies and hot sunshine and by the time I closed the gates, the rain was lashing down from a dark grey sky. This continued until I had almost reached my destination but as I passed the boatyard at Longport, the sun was once again in full force. I finally moored at the very civilised time of 15.30 at Westport Lake - the only boat there and I see why. Several came, attempted to make lines fit and left again - why do the people building these lovely moorings not ever do any research about boat lengths - the rings never fit. As I type this, I'm being bumped about intot he wall at every gust of wind as my lines have to be several miles long and even then the front one doesn't reach back onto the boat for a secure 'tie-off'.

Tomorrow - on to Harecastle, pick up my father and then either through the tunnel tomorrow or Saturday morning depending on the time.