Harecastle, Heartbreak & A Bit of A Lift

Well, here we are... a week since the blog was born and a week of photos to sort through....and I can't remember what fontsize I did the first post in - can anyone tell me how I can save my font choices so it does them automatically??
Anyway, enough of my tech inabilities, where were we... We spent the morning of the 25th at the Middleport Pottery.  Full of history and one of the few remaining bottle chimneys in the town of Stoke on Trent, this is a great place to visit and learn about pottery making.  They still make pottery here, Poole pottery has been made here since 2011, I think it was.  We then headed back to the boat, grabbed a quick lunch and made our way to the Harecastle Tunnel.  Not without trepidation as a boater died in the tunnel last year when he hit his head and fell unconscious into the water.  The tunnel is manned at each end and you go through in convoy as it's too narrow to pass another boat. It's very low in places, so you have to duck - you can just make out the gauging chains hanging at the entrance to make sure you're not too high to pass through.

Queuing for the Harecastle Tunnel - the final boat just coming out.

The exit - North end - of the tunnel.

 Once in the tunnel, they close a door behind the last boat and turn huge fans on to circulate air through - all quite exciting, if a bit scary, not to mention noisy!  I think I was so relieved to be out, that I convinced myself I'd quite enjoyed it ;)

We continued on down what is known as Heartbreak Hill.  It's a flight of locks which are spaced just far enough apart to have to get back on the boat inbetween, but close enough that there's not really time to do anything other than wait for the next lock to appear.  Some of us approached Heartbreak Hill with more energy than others.....

This is a picture of the pretty iron work on the little bridge.....

 We continued along the Trent & Mersey, taking us under the M6 and through some stunning countryside.  They use a particularly pretty font on the bridges and locks on the T&M.

Locking down under the M6

Pretty bridge near our mooring at Bramble Cutting

 On Saturday we took the Anderton Lift, getting the last slot at 5.30pm to take us 15m down on to the River Weaver.  We'd been chatting with Chyrell and Sam from NB Calon Lan, and met them at the bottom also looking for a mooring for the night as the locks were now closed.  We found a bit of bank and moored up and then spent the next three days travelling the Weaver with them and their gorgeous dog, Angel.

The Anderton Lift - Magnificent Victorian Engineering.

The Stunning Vale Lock on the River Weaver

Sunset at Acton Swing Bridge

Northwich

Last night on the Weaver with Calon Lan - Angel was already in bed.  Happy Times :)

On Tuesday we came back up the Anderton and took in the last leg of the Trent & Mersey and this morning came through the Preston Brook Tunnel (at 9.10am!!!!!  Unheard of, us being up that early - must be the heat getting to us!!) and on to the Bridgewater canal, which we did not expect to be so pretty.

Bridgewater Canal

We have reached the beautiful little town of Lymm where we will spend a couple of nights.  Tonight we're meeting an old colleague of Mike's called Neil.  Last night we met an old colleague of Mike's called Nicky.  I'm thinking of renaming the blog - Mike Queenan, The Reunion....... anyway, hope you were sitting comfortably when I began, and are still comfortable at the end of this week's ramblings.