Slow start to day 10 as the weather was atrocious; followed the boat moored in front of us through a very narrow part of the canal (Woodseaves cutting), fortunately we didn’t meet anyone.

Went down Tyrley looks, the fourth one of these is notorious for its by-flow; with the weather we have had particularly the rain overnight all the by flows were strong, but at lock four it was ferocious. I never thought my drag racing skills would come in useful but coming out of that lock at full throttle meant I didn’t end up in the trees, I hope the flow has gone down a bit by the time we come back. Had a trip through a Rowan, a rose bush and a Sycamore shortly after the locks when I met another boat on a bend in a narrow bit – Ouch! Started to find a few farm shops so have been topping up the supplies whilst going down the locks. Finished the day just above the next flight of locks in a quiet sunlight mooring – much more like it!

Day 11 weather was the other way around, we started in bright sunshine and ended in rain, quite a few locks today; 15 on the Audlem flight and then another two a bit further on.

The sunshine brought out the butterflies (we saw orange tips and small blue (?)). Our large water tank is paying off, today was the first time we had to fill it since we started, the down side is that it takes ages to fill; we finally cut it short when someone came up through the nearby lock, leaving it set for us, it seemed rude not to take advantage of it. Sad to say the following boat wasn’t so friendly; it is the norm on the canals to help other crews. As we worked the lock to go down the crew of (at least four blokes) sat on their boat and watched me do all the work until the last minute. Finished the day at Nantwich.