Finally saying farewell to Festival Park on Sunday morning, we headed up the Caldon Canal: Piper Boats still had some stuff to finish off (!) and we planned to stay close to the factory as the crow flies, if only because we’d left the car there. The weather was gloomy, and didn’t inspire any photographic efforts, but there are some from the previous trips here and here.

Mooring up in Milton, we discovered (again) that on Monday morning, Milton is pretty like a town on half-day closing. We did manage to stock up on some local pies and sausages though. The sky was leaking drizzle, unlike last time, when the leak was more serious. We were also expecting Pipers to come and finish off some stuff, but they’d forgotten. Ho hum.

So we headed off in dull and drizzly weather, stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and ended up on Tuesday tackling the Leek Arm of the Caldon Canal: narrow, winding, overgrown and somewhat of a challenge. Fortunately, we found room to moor at the end of the arm, the sun had finally peeped out, and we spent a pleasant lunchtime and afternoon walking into and around Leek, a town that we like more each time we visit (even if the local Waitrose is closing next week).

The path from the end of the navigation into town (or Morrison’s car park, anyway) is quite long and overgrown, but runs alongside Leek Cattle Market even though you can’t see it. Judging by the noises and aromas, Tuesday is market day at Leek…