intrepid pony: Heading for the Secret Bunker

entering Audlem

The day was dry but overcast so the Captain cast off early to do as many locks as possible before the weather changed for the worse. As soon as I opened the first lock of the Adderley flight it started to drizzle. However as it was a hot day the rain was pleasant and refreshing so we carried on to the bigger Audlem flight.

waterside mill

The rest of the morning the light rain started and stopped randomly but never became heavy. We made rapid progess down the first 9 locks of the Audlem flight as the boats coming up tended to reach our level as our gates opened. This meant half the work as we could leave our gates open for the up-coming boat and they left theirs open so we could drive straight in. The Captain and I worked two locks each all the way down the flight to get a rest on the boat, but the paddles were smooth and the gates easy to open.

pubside moorings

Part way down the flight Lottie slipped into a field to explore. As she returned she yelped – she had caught her left front leg on the barbed wire. She licked and licked it as dogs do, and it looked raw but clean.

We moored at 12.30 between locks 11 and12. Immediately the sun began to shine. By the time we finished lunch and felt ready to carry on locking the sky had clouded over. I’d rather that than heavy rain. Again we met boats coming up which halved the work and gave us other boaters to talk to.

This place likes boaters

Audlem was empty compared with last time our visit coincided with the working boat festival. It was lovely to see all the old boats as we crept through but there was no space to pass other traffic. However we may catch the start of the gathering on our way back.

We moored for the evening at the visitor moorings near the secret bunker. Well obviously it’s not secret now but it was when the government lived in fear of a nuclear strike.

"We spent five hours there," a neighbouring boater remarked. "I thought we'd be out in less than an hour but it was brilliant!"