Day 5 Wednesay

Wednesday

Nice countryside as we headed toward Cheddleton

Rising for our usual light breakfast at 0500 we were surprised to see it fairly misty. However it was not so bad as to prevent us moving along, and so after taking on water at Consall we headed back along the river in relaxed mood and wondering where we would be come nightfall. Plenty of time to contemplate the day ahead as we left the river and meandered along the canal

Approaching Cheddleton Dave and Trev elected to take the trek up the mountain to visit the local shop for some much needed provisions. Malc said he would move along to the moorings just past the Flint Mill

Now mooring a boat single handed is as easy as it gets, unless your name is Malc. It would appear that as Malc got to the mooring spot he jumped off the boat with the centre rope and of course forgetting his damaged knee he somehow pushed himself off the boat, his knee could give in anytime, having succeeded in take off and landing without inflicting injury upon himself,  he then started to pull the boat into the side. Unknown to him the rope had snagged on something and so when he exerted all his pulling power to bring the boat in, the rope released and he fell backwards, now that would be bad enough but he was at the edge of a small embankment at the time and of course fell down it

Having clambered back up he was dismayed to find his cap at the bottom and so had go down again to retrieve it. He was lucky to escape with severe bruising and managed to have a good laugh about it despite the pain. He did eventually manage to moor the boat before the arrival of Dave and Trev and after explaining what happened then had to endure their mirth (should have kept it quiet really)

One of the water wheels at the Flint Mill. Not working at the time and the
place was closed. I was informed that they rely on volunteers to open it
That's fair enough, people are busy and getting volunteers is never easy.
Malc wandered around the outside taking it all in along with plenty of photo's

Malc decided to explore the restored Flint Mill. Sadly it wasn't open at the time. It relies on volunteers to man the place. However, there is plenty to see outside including the two impressive water wheels that power the machinery inside. This place would have been a hive of activity in its heyday. It's great that enthusiasts have restored it to working order so that future generations can experience the way things were first hand

The Mill Race. Clever how the engineers used the flow of the river to drive
the water wheel and in turn the machinery inside the mill

Eventually setting off for Hazelhurst junction with no particular plan in mind, it became one of those lets see where we end up days. Thing is if you make specific plans you either end up rushing or not arriving, better to be a bit more spontaneous, that's the secret, We moored at Hazelhurst Junction at lunchtime and after backing into the Leek arm just below bridge No1 lunch was taken

Top lock at Hazelhurst with what appears to be a former lock keepers house
in the background. A beauty of a house, wonder if they'd swop?

View from the embankment near bridge No 1 at Hazelhurst
It was here that a friendly waterway employee explained that there in no by-weir to feed the main line to Froghall at this point there is instead a valve that takes water from the upper to the lower and this is manually operated. Interesting to find that out as we always assumed there was a by-weir at every lock. There you go, live and learn

After lunch and a spot of fishing it was time to move along and see where we might end up for the night. We mulled it over whilst taking on water at the excellent Park Lane facility and decided to just look for a quiet place as a barbecue seemed like a good idea. We moored for the night at a spot just short of the village of Endon

A nice photographic scene. How can it be improved?

Having moored we decided to use the barbeque and what a wise choice that was. A nice meal with a few bottles of beer to wash it down and the night ended well. Only disappointing note was none of us took any photo's of the barbecue as it gently cooked our burgers and sausages to perfection. We've used disposable barbecues in the past and they've been pretty much a waste of time so this time around we had a small portable unit that worked a treat. Don't think we needed the hundredweight bag of charcoal that we brought though

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?