B2B Day 72 Canal Walking to Colton

For an OS map of today's walk (9.02 miles; 14.52 km; 183 ft of total ascent), click here.

We had another lovely breakfast and chat with Elaine. We stayed longer at the breakfast table than we might have done, just enjoying the music and her conversation. We didn't want to leave.

We set off at 10:55 a.m. After a bit of road walking, we got onto the canal path. This was a lovely graveled path at first, and we saw lots of yellow irises and wildflowers along the water. Before we had walked an hour the predicted heavy rain set in, and we put on pack covers and raincoats. I still enjoyed seeing the rain create bubbles on the surface of the canal, and the ducks and Canada geese, but it was admittedly not as pleasant as walking in the sunshine of two days ago. We did not take many photos, which was especially disappointing for Ken as he loves canal walks and had hoped to stop a few places for pictures as well as some canal-side snacks in the sun. The best laid plans on walking trips are often disrupted by poor weather!

We had enjoyed walking on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, and now it came to an end—literally at a T junction, merging right into the Trent & Mersey canal, the third canal we would walk alongside on this trip and in the age of canals an important England-wide cargo connection between the Mersey River on the west coast and the River Trent, which runs to the east coast. This is known as Haywood Junction, and there were canal boat hire companies, moorings, a marina, and the Canalside Cafe close by. On a sunny day it would have been a lot of fun. So it was disappointing that the rain was pelting down, the pack covers were on, and we didn't get a picture. For the same reason we decided not to go to the nearby Canalside Farm Shop's cafe for tea or cake—a place which Ken had spotted online and which Elaine had highly recommended as well.

As we came near a bridge over the canal, we saw a man and a woman carrying a large basket of colourful flowers over the bridge, having a bit of work to get the flowers down the steps coming off of the bridge. We caught up with them as they were getting onto a beautiful narrow boat that had many lovely flower planters on its roof. The man said to us wryly, "You can see that we had just about run out of flowers, so we had to buy some more!" We complimented them on how beautiful their boat was.

Soon after, we went into Great Haywood to post our package, Elaine having given us a padded envelope to use. The woman who served us at the post office was very kind and answered all of our questions about the forms. She helped us to figure out how we could track our package. We bought some oaten cookies to replenish our "emergency" stock, and Ken was happy to carry them, having lightened his pack of several maps and guidebooks. 

Coming back to the canal, we did take a look at Essex Bridge, a very long, sixteenth century packhorse bridge connecting the village with the Shugborough Estate. It crosses the River Trent in 14 arches, and it originally had 40! (Presumably the bridge was once much longer to cross formerly boggy ground.) Since it was too rainy to take a picture, here's a link to one.

We planned to stop at the Red Lion at Little Haywood for a lunch of pub snacks. When we got there, we realized that Ken must have misread the hours on the website because the pub was closed. It wasn't a long detour, but a bit frustrating not to find shelter and rest from the rain. Fortunately, there was another option not too far away. We got back onto the canal path and walked a mile and a quarter to the Wolseley Arms near Rugeley. 

We got a nice table near a fireplace with no fire in it, which was a pity, since Ken was absolutely soaked through to the skin. We hadn't waterproofed his coat before we left; my new coat repelled the water, but his didn't. Our pack covers were quite wet, and we tried to hang things discretely near our table so that they could dry out. We had a late lunch at last. Ken ordered a chicken/bacon/avocado salad. He joked that in one meal he had doubled the amount of vegetables he had eaten the whole trip. He had two pints of lemonade as well. Afterwards he thought it would have been more strategic to have a hot meal and hot drink since he was quite chilled. We were too shy to ask if the pub staff could light the fire. I had a small macaroni and cheese, onion rings, and tea, which was just right (though it sounds an odd combination now that I've written it down). 

We left at 2:37 p.m. and it had basically stopped raining for the day; it was blustery but there were lots of patches of blue. Though it was cool, the wind and our walking warmed us—particularly Ken—back up. We enjoyed our final stretch of walking along a canal during this trip. Across the canal in a field there were two adult Canada geese with (it looked like) about thirty goslings. Later on the water, we passed two adult geese with fifteen goslings.

Farewell to walking on canal paths

The canal behind us, we were briefly on a path in some woods, and then road-walked the couple of miles into Colton. We arrived at the pub where we were staying, Ye Olde Dun Cow, at 4:15 p.m., and there was a note saying to ring the owners between 3:00-6:00 p.m. A kind woman and her adult son who had driven over to get something from the pub's small shop (which was closed) helped ring the owners; Kristian soon arrived having picked up one of his children from school, and we were inside before we knew it.

When we unpacked in our spacious room, I discovered that I had left my written journal at last night's B&B, but Elaine is going to send it on to the Hut in Eyam. I'll have to journal mainly by writing this blog. 

Our lovely room at Ye Olde Dun Cow (the seals loved the bunnies!)

The ensuite bathroom has a wonderful deep tub that helped remove some of our aches and pains. 

The tub!

We went down to dinner at 6:30 p.m. I ordered fish and chips, and Ken ordered Chicken Kiev. Both were huge portions, and both were amazing. It was the best fish and chips I've had, I think, and Ken's Chicken Kiev was also outstanding. We certainly had no room for dessert. It was good to snuggle into bed after a good day's walking in the rain.