Bridge 76 to Gailey (Staffs & Worcs Canal)

Saturday 20^th and Sunday 21^st June

Duck family looking for food!

Greylag Family

Gemma Panda Geocaching

Off we go

Jay on the fence opposite us

We decided to stay put here yesterday (Saturday) as it is such a nice spot.  We went for a walk and we did some geocaching as there were a few on this stretch. Kev has done them before but I haven't.  It was nice to geocache again as we haven’t done it for quite some time. Gemma Panda came with us to lend a hand!

Today (Sunday) we are moving onto Gailey. Before we left, a Jay came and sat on the fence opposite the boat.  I did get a picture of him but unfortunately he was looking the other way.   The sun was shining as we set off from our mooring, under a few bridges and past the chemical works.

All Bridges have names on this canal

Passing the Chemical Works

We went on and after a couple of miles we were approaching Gailey Wharf.  We stopped at the water point to fill up.  Here at Gailey there is a lock and alongside the lock is Gailey round house, an old toll keeper's watch tower.

Around another bend

Coming to GaileyWharf

The lock was empty so I filled it up, opened the gates and Kev brought the boat in.  It is quite a deep lock but empties quickly so soon we were down the lock and on our way.

We moored up in the visitor moorings below the lock and as we were tying up we had a hefty shower, I was okay as I was inside, but Kev got a tad wet.  The shower soon went over and the sun came out again.

Gemma Panda at Gailey

Gailey Lock

In the afternoon, we walked down to the small garden centre.  They had it really well laid out with a one way system and arrows on the floor, it worked really well and there were quite a few people in there, but it felt okay and everyone kept to the system and kept their distance.  

The only thing was to get out you had to queue even if you didn’t buy anything but we didn’t mind as it wasn’t taking very long, except the chap behind us kept pushing his trolley closer and closer to us and then he said to the people behind him who hadn’t bought anything they could go past us all so we said we haven’t bought anything either but were waiting for the older couple in front of us to pay instead of squeezing past them so they waited but he still told them to go in front of him but as he was so close to us, they would have been stood right by us but thankfully they stayed where they were, you always get one don’t you!!

In he comes

Old Toll House

We then called in the garage on the way back and bought an ice cream and sat by the canal to eat it, mind you there had been another heavy shower when we were in the garden centre so we got wet bottoms sitting on the seat but never mind, it'll dry!

We are staying here for a couple of days now, leaving on Tuesday to go to Penkridge.  Tomorrow we are going to walk down to the big garden centre, Dobbies so let’s hope they have as good a system for walking around as the small one does.

Moored at Gailey