Finally got away from Etruria this morning. Had to visit the facilities to take on water etc so had to go up to the Caldon Canal and turn the boat around and then back to the water point. When we had finished watering I went around to the first lock of the day to prepare it. A boat was coming up so I helped a lone boater through the lock and told him that John was waiting on Merlin around the corner. He then told me he was going up the Caldon so that made the turn into the lock much more difficult, but John managed it no problem as the lone boater was very good and moved out of the way to allow us to turn. We then proceeded out of Etruria towards Stoke. It was not a pleasant cruise, 5 locks all through the centre of Stoke so loads of graffiti on the walls and youths on bikes. The area is very industrial which is expected on the canals but we were glad to get back out into the countryside. We travelled onto Barlaston where we planned to stop for the night so one more lock to go through which was 6 in total for the day. When we got to Barlaston we realised that we would be stopping at the Plume of Feathers which is owned by Neil Morrissey of Men Behaving Badly. We stopped at this very spot in 2014 when we had our old boat Maya. It was Neil’s birthday and he was having a party for all the locals. We went into the pub and were welcomed into the party as well. Brought back good memories. As we got to the Plume of Feathers early afternoon, we decided to have lunch there which was delicious and highly recommended. After lunch and a couple of gin and tonics for me and cider for John we headed back to the boat for the afternoon. All four of us had an afternoon nap before settling for the evening. A very pleasant end to the day.
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