Thursday 8th November

The start of Heartbreak Hill today. Bacon Butties with wensleydale and mushrooms to give us the energy. A couple of boats had headed past us this morning so we expected the locks to be against us, but turning the corner onto the Trent and Mersey one lock was ready for us and it was the one that you can leave the chimney on. We came across a boat coming up at the third lock helping to re-set it for us. Then stopped at Red Bull services for water and to get rid of rubbish. It now started to rain, waterproofs on. We started to play leapfrog with another boat who overtook us at the water point. But luckily the double locks on this stretch were kind to us having a chamber full. At the last double lock we met another boat coming up as we were going down. The single locks had to be filled, but at least it wasn't every one of them.

We passed the leapfrog boat having lunch and then pulled in ourselves to replenish the energy levels before the last four locks of the day.The bread from the beginning of the week was now stale so the ducks of Rode Heath were going to be lucky. Well some of them were, as there was an awful lot of them! I spotted one that didn't look like your average Mallard or white duck. It looked like it had got itself tarted up for a good night out on the town. So over our lunch I went from cover to cover of the bird book, but nothing. After searching the internet we reckon it was a Mandarin Duck, very flashy!

Leapfrog boat passed us shortly before we were about to leave, so the next lock had to be filled. We passed them shortly before lock 55 again so had the advantage of locks in our favour. We have stopped just below Lock 56 with the M6 droning on in the background. We last moored here at Christmas in a major storm, in fact we ended up mooring on the lock landing as the weather was so wild, this time we moved on a short distance.

Chickeny pasta tonight has finally finished off the Sunday Roast. Here's hoping there is something else on the menu tomorrow.

5 miles, 16 locks, 1 lesser spotted neck brace duck, 572 mallards, 4 leapfrogs, 2 boxes of tissues, 1 dishwasher.

Smart Gauge at start of day 99