Up to the Staffs and Worcs summit
Cleddau approached Great Haywood Junction. 
The field opposite seems to attract tents and campervans. 
Are those portaloos over by the hedge? After topping up the water tank and getting rid of on-board rubbish the Captain executed a neat reverse (not an easy manoeuvre) and turned under the bridge, heading towards Wolverhampton.Hearts were in mouths – would there be space at a very favourite place? Yes, there was, a mooring along the widest part of Tixall Wide. Just as hoped for! 
Repair and improvement work to the towpath here seems to have increased the height of the bank edging, making getting on and off the boat a trifle easier. It’s a smooth and easy path now for bikes and pushchairs.Despite the hot afternoon temperature Boatwif felt it her duty to potter back to the Junction to check things out. Even in high season there were several hire boats still available at the Anglo Welsh hire base. Are prices too high for customers this year...? 
First, to the Farm Shop. What a thriving business this is now. 
From a canal side Pick Your Own Strawberries affair three decades ago has grown a thoroughly modern air-conditioned delicatessen and fresh produce shop, 
with some high-class home giftware on show too. 
The adjacent café, part of the same business, offers indoor seating, tables under shade outside and a canal-facing terrace. Enterprising!Opposite the Farm Shop car park was a notice. 
So the field with the couple of Portaloos is a No Frills campsite then…A circular walk through Great Haywood village included a stroll towards the ancient packhorse bridge into the Shugborough Estate. 
In the shallows where the rivers Sow and Trent converge, folks of all ages (dogs too) were paddling and splashing in the water. 
Back at the Wide a check had to be made that Tixall Gatehouse could still be seen. 
If you’re interested it’s still on the books for renting as a holiday property with the Landmark Trust – see here: There was a beautifully quiet afternoon and evening. Further along two teenage boys slipped into an inflatable canoe and drifted, wordlessly, towards the opposite reeds. 
As the sun lowered just one occupant floated silently on the flat expanse of water.Sunset. 
Late morning, sated with Tixall views, Cleddau and crew set off along the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. 
This canal’s 46½ mile route is cut in a south west to north east line from Stourport-on-Severn to Great Haywood. There’s a 12 lock climb to the summit.Up through pretty Tixall Lock. 
Over the Sow Aqueduct at Milford 
and onward towards Stafford. It was interesting to see smart C&RT signposts for towpath users indicating distances and walk times between key locations. 
There seems to be further progress on the Riverway Link (a new canal basin and navigable link from the canal down into Stafford town). 
On past a number of houses of infected with ‘extensionitis’ 
and on past the impressive facilities at Stafford Boat Club. 
Then comes Deptmore Lock. The canal weaves through Acton Trussell, a good-looking commuter settlement, conveniently (noisily!) close to the M6. Onwards, locks becoming more frequent, Shutt Hill, Park Gate and Longford. Cleddau crept close to Penkridge, a small market town deemed useful for a day off and a family liaison.Who knew that a trip boat runs from Park Gate Lock to Penkridge and back. 
Cyclists (up from Devon with their caravan to cycle the towpaths of Middle England) had booked an afternoon tea cruise; other trips available include morning cruises and specially commissioned trips. At one point happy guests at an 80th birthday party cruise slipped out of Penkridge Lock and past Cleddau’s overnight mooring.Could Penkridge provide what Boatwif craved – a replacement watch battery? Penkridge has a few useful shops (no jewellers) and a large twice weekly market. From the mooring to the market involved a walk of well over a mile. The stalls offered a huge range of items, even watch batteries … except that the man who fits watch batteries was away on holiday. Oh well!A long and slowly shuffling queue outside a small shop had almost a magnetic effect – if people are shuffling in line there must be something worth queuing for. Was it for a regular Saturday Fish ‘n’ Chip lunch? No, a bakery where customers inside the shop were eagerly pointing at iced cakes and sweet goodies…Pork pies and sausage rolls (excellent quality) from a Penkridge butcher’s became the basis for a Sunday buffet the following day.“We’re as far north now as we’re coming,” Boatwif had explained to the Cheshire Mum from Great Haywood Junction. Cheshire Mum has form when dealing with maps, locations, parking restrictions and transport issues. By mid-morning the Cheshire Three had arrived from Macclesfield, loaded Techno’s cycle on the roof of the boat 
and picked up a windlass each. 
Their assistance at six more locks took Cleddau up to the summit at Gailey (100 feet above Great Haywood Junction) and onwards a few further miles too. Somewhere dock leaves were found for a nettle sting on the Captain's thumb. 
- and somewhere else (near Bridge 74) the bike was reassembled 
for Techno Son-in-Law to cycle back to Penkridge to collect the car while Cheshire Mum calculated a towpath and footpath route over to Slade Heath to meet the car… Simple! 
Would replenishing the diesel tank be quite so simple?Cleddau’s onward journey would involve cruising onwards across the summit, around the back of Wolverhampton and then down 31 more locks to Stourport-on-Severn…Luck was in, Oxley Marine, the little boatyard between Autherley Junction (entrance to the Shropshire Union and onward to Chester) 
and Aldersley Junction (21 locks up to Wolverhampton and Birmingham) 
was willing to sell diesel for £1 per litre and payment in cash. 
Relief, there was enough fuel in the tank to cruise onwards to Stourport and to the Severn! 
Great Haywood Junction to Aldersley Junction: 21 miles, 12 locks, 0 swing bridges2024 Totals: 287 miles, 10 tunnel passages, 157 locks, 8 swing bridges *2024 Monkton Moments* (Monkton Moment*- a reference to / recognition of Cleddau’s Pembrokeshire connections) – now 17Tudor Rose enquiries: 2Footballs floating in the cut: 7Supermarket trolleys visible in the cut: 2 
