Chester draws us: Day 2

Last night’s mooring had zero signal, although every now and again a few emails would come through.  We had a very modest target for today, as long as there was some connectivity.  Beeston Stone Lock was only a few yards ahead of us, and because this lock can take two boats while the next lock can only take one, the pound between the two gets very short of water.  We were about to walk down to see what the water level was like, when we spotted a boat was coming up in the lock — so a quick change of plan and Adrian grabbed a windlass while I got the boat untied.

The pound between the two Beeston Locks was much higher than it had been yesterday afternoon, so it must recover a bit overnight.  Beeston Iron Lock was empty so needed filling.  It’s made of iron sheets, because the land around it is sand, and stone locks kept shifting.  But it’s a bit distorted, and it’s strongly advised that boats go down one by one.

The next stretch is quite pretty through a wooded area.  Then comes Wharton’s Lock, which was more than half full.  As Adrian filled it, a chap arrived from a boat below, so we had help with gates.  The by-wash is extremely strong, so having picked up Adrian under the bridge, I then had to go backwards and do a more powerful exit, to avoid clonking the waiting boat.  It had begun to rain, and was now quite heavy.  We were only going a short distance further, but got soaked.  We moored up just short of The Shady pub.

After lunch, when the weather was completely transformed, my sister and nieces who live nearby came to visit.  We walked back to Wharton’s Lock and followed part of the Sandstone Trail across the fields and under the railway line to Beeston Castle.

We didn’t go in, but we did have an ice cream at the cafe, and then took a path down through some woods.

We followed the road round the far side of the castle, where there was a view of Peckforton Castle on the next hill over, and a lovely farmhouse.  Then you could look up at Beeston Castle on the rocks above.

It meant we’d walked all round the hill, and then retraced our steps back across the fields to the boat.

2 miles, 3 locks.  (7 miles, 6 locks)

Chester draws us: Day 1

Rain in the night and it was still raining when we set off.  We only went as far as Barbridge, where we moored up and waited for Keith Wilson to arrive to refit our cratch cover.  It’s now a better fit.

When that was done we continued, going straight over at Barbridge Junction, towards Chester.  We stopped at the Calverely Services to fill with water and start some washing.  As soon as lunch was ready, the tank was full so we ate on the move.  The first locks are the Bunbury Staircase, where there were two boats to go down and one to come up, so we did the legendary Bunbury Shuffle.  When the middle level was reached, I went forward, the other downhill boat pushed over, the uphill boat went ahead, I pushed over, and the other downhill boat came in.

We did one more lock, then moored above Beeston Stone lock.  There’s no signal, so we’ve had to go for a walk to find some!

5 miles, 3 locks.

Latest Braidbar visit

Another non-moving day, at least by boat.  We walked up to get the car and drove up to Braidbar to see the latest progress on Kingley Vale.  We have an engine!  There’s more details on that and progress in the galley on the KV blog.

Both there and back our journey took us over or under several canals, as Google sent us through Middlewich, Church Minshull, and Barbridge.  It was nearly 4pm when we got back, with some nice sunshine.  For once, the locks were fairly quiet as we walked back down them.

Re-stocking

A non-moving day today, but not so for other people.  We heard the first boats heading for Hurleston Locks and the Llangollen Canal at 7am, before we were up.  After breakfast there was a steady stream of boats heading for the junction, and there seemed to be a constant queue.  We needed shopping, so walked up to the car and drove into Nantwich for a visit to Morrison’s, conscious that we’d have to carry it all back down the towpath.  When we got back, a boat that had been at the bottom of the locks was only just getting to the top, so it had taken a while.

I spent the rest of the morning editing interviews for a podcast, then we had lunch.  Shortly afterwards, our former share boat, Debdale, came along and had Carole and Nick on board who were owners at the same time as us.  It took Carole a moment to realise it was us!  They joined the queue for the locks, and we walked down to have a chat with them at the start of a walk round the reservoir.  At that point they were maybe fourth in the queue, and with other boats just wanting to go through the junction it was chaos.

It was also chaos up the locks, because people had kept coming up, even though there was nowhere for them to go.  A couple of the pounds had more than one boat waiting, in not much room.  From up at the reservoir, we could see that one hire boat had got itself into the reeds on the offside — and it was the pound which loses water so was very shallow.

We walked round to the other side of the reservoir, which seems to have more water in it than when we were here a couple of weeks ago.  On our way back, the hire boat was just coming into the top lock, so it had taken them a while.  The volunteer lock keeper told us they were from Switzerland, and that the boat behind them had overtaken them, rather than help them.  He wasn’t impressed.  By the time we got back down to the bottom of the flight, Carole and Nick were next in line for the bottom lock, but were in no hurry to turn it because there were three boats in the pound above.

Boats have continued up the flight; we reckon there must have been more than 30 go up during the day, plus a handful down.  This afternoon I have put together a podcast and scheduled it, so I now have three lined up to publish over the next few weeks.  Adrian has been doing more of his charity role, and we’ll watch the Lionesses in the Euros final while our chicken is roasting.

Greater Cheshire: Day 15 — and floating market

This morning we were up and setting off by 8am, retracing our steps to Hurleston Junction.  There were no gaps on the moorings south of the junction, but no boats at all north of it, so we tied up there.  The next job was to take the cratch cover off, as it’s going for an alteration — and as it had rained overnight it needed a dry off first.  Then we walked up to where the car is being kept, and drove down to Market Drayton.  We’d arranged to meet Keith Wilson in a car park to hand over the cratch cover, then walked down to the canal where a floating market was taking place.

We first located Andy and Helen on the Jam Butty and dropped our things in their boat.  Then we had a good look round.  Purchases included a print of a painting by one of the artists there, Emma Bradley, and a pizza from the pizza boat for lunch.  I did a load of interviews for a future podcast too.  Once the punters had faded away, we joined Andy and Helen for drinks and then dinner on board, plus plenty of the usual chat.  We drove home and walked down the locks, arriving back at the junction just as the sun was setting over the reservoir.

2 miles, 0 locks.  (72 miles, 20 locks)

Greater Cheshire: Day 14

Our plan for today had been to just go round the corner to close to where the car is being kept, but Adrian had booked a hair cut in Nantwich, so we decided to go there instead.  It was a lovely sunny morning and we set off about 9.15.

There were plenty of boats about, including one just in front of us.  When we got to Barbridge Junction, he made the turn north towards Chester.

He’d indicated that a boat was coming south, so I crept towards the junction, with Adrian acting as lookout.  The boat had waited, as they wanted to turn into the Middlewich Arm.  So we came out of the junction, and then they went round.  I was able to tell them the coast was clear.

At Hurleston Junction, the start of the Llangollen Canal, a boat was waiting to go up, and a boat was going into the bottom lock to come down.

We carried on south towards Nantwich.  The bridge across the mainline at Nantwich Marina (this used to be a junction) has the mile post for Nantwich being zero miles.

We slowly passed all the moorings and went across the aqueduct, then passed all the moorings to the south, noting where the gaps were.  There’s a winding hole through the next bridge, and it turned out the boat in front of us wanted to turn around as well.  There was a boat coming the other way, so they waited for them to come past first, then turned.

We were now in a procession of three boats, plus a day boat behind, but the spot we’d identified on the approach to the aqueduct was still free.

After lunch, we walked into Nantwich, which has some very interesting buildings and a large church, nicknamed the Catherdral of South Cheshire, apparently.

We visited the little museum, which has sections of salt making, the Romans, and Cheshire cheese!  After drinks in a cafe, Adrian went off to the barber while I walked back the long way round, following part of the Nantwich Riverside Loop, which goes along the River Weaver, then cuts across the fields, crosses the railway lines and returns to the canal towpath.

6 miles, 0 locks.  (70 miles, 20 locks)

Greater Cheshire: Day 13

Another day with only a modest target, so another pretty relaxed start.  We got another load of washing going so we’re pretty much caught up now, then set off about 9.30.  It was warm but rather overcast to start with.  A couple of bridges further on are the other Church Minshull moorings, which have a view across the valley, with the village looking a bit like a model.

There had been a few boats about this morning, but one of those in front of us turned into Aqueduct Marina.  But at Minshull Lock we still had a boat ahead; Adrian went to help, and discovered it was a Texan with a short Aintree Beetle.  Then it was our turn to go up, with no traffic coming the other way.

Immediately before the next lock we pulled onto the fuel point at Chamberlain Chandlers at Venetian Marina.  Diesel is 97p domestic, which is both a reasonable price and the most expensive we’ve bought since setting out at the end of March.

Being on the wharf seems like quite a vulnerable place to be when boats are coming out the lock.  As we were tying up a hire boat came out and only narrowly avoided hitting us, and when we were ready to go another took a similar line.  Adrian had walked up to the lock and had warned me there was a boat coming down, so I just waited where I was.  Fortunately there were no other boats wanting to go up.  There were two volunteer lock keepers on duty, one of whom we’d seen at Middlewich on Tuesday.  Once up the lock we moved onto the water point.  It’s not a particularly fast tap, and we’ve done two loads of washing since we last filled so we knew it would take a while.  When the tank was eventually full, we moved a couple of hundred metres along onto a nice spot on the moorings.

After lunch, I thought I’d do a job that’s been on the to do list for a while — repainting part of the handrails.  We’d picked up a few scuffs and scratches on the ones behind the boatman’s beam, and I’d done Fertan, primer, and undercoat ages ago.  But since then it’s either been too hot for painting or too likely to rain.  Today was warm but not hot, and there’s no rain in the forecast today or tomorrow, so I masked up the edges, gave them all a light sand, dusted them off, and got the roller out.  Of course the sun had come out so by the time the prep was finished it was perhaps a bit warmer than I would have liked, but they definitely look better, and will be better again when the masking tape comes off, which I will do this evening when the paint is dry but not too hard.

Later in the afternoon we walked back to the marina for an ice cream, and watched the new hybrid Avanti trains on the line that crosses the far end of the marina.  Adrian has alsobeen doing charity accounts, so between us we’ve had a fairly productive afternoon.

4 miles, 2 locks.  (64 miles, 20 locks)

Greater Cheshire: Day 12

Remarkably, we had the lovely Clive Green moorings to ourselves last night.  This morning, with a very unambitious target, we were in no rush to get away.  We eventually got a wash load going to try to reduce the backlog, and set off rather slowly at about 10am; the was no point it getting to where we were going if the washing machine hadn’t finished.  The local farmer and his team was busy muck spreading.

The canal seems very quiet at the moment.  No boats had been past before we set off, and we passed only one in the hour we were moving.  We moored up just through Bridge 14, on the first of the Church Minshull moorings.  These ones don’t have a view over the valley, but they do have a nice piled edge rather than rocks below the water line.  A while later, when it was lunchtime, we walked down the road from the bridge into Church Minshull.  There’s a bridge over the River Weaver, with a view of Bridge House, which has a rather unexpected tower.

The church bell ringers had been doing their thing for the best part of an hour already.  It’s quite an unusual shaped building, and we were headed to The Badger Inn next door.

We had an excellent and good value lunch from their sandwich menu, so good in fact that we’re thinking we really won’t need much dinner later.  Then we had a walk round the village, which has lots of half timbered buildings.

To get back, we took a footpath which started along the valley then climbed up through woodlands and even involved a couple of bridges across gulleys.

The last comes out by the next canal bridge, so we could then walk along the towpath back to the boat.  We’d thought about doing another mile or two, to the moorings before Aqueduct Marina, but decided to stay where we were.  Adrian has spent the afternoon working on a project while he has a good signal; I went for a walk to complete my steps for the day, but otherwise have done very little.

3 miles, 0 locks.  (60 miles, 18 locks)

Greater Cheshire: Day 11

It had clearly rained overnight and it was a bit drizzly when we set off, but generally it’s been a much better day than forecast.  We headed round the corner to Big Lock, which was already empty so we could go straight up.  We then moored just along the canal and walked up to Lidl for some shopping.  It’s a while since we’ve been near a big shop.  Back at the boat we started a wash load of towels, and then just as we were about to set off again a boat came round the corner, meaning we were behind them going up the locks.  It didn’t particularly matter though, as there were volunteer lockies on all three locks, so (apart from having to turn the bottom one) each was ready for us.

At the top of the locks is Middlewich Wharf, where there were fewer boats than the other day.

At Wardle Junction, we found not one but two boats in front of us, and there was another in front of all of us going up the first lock on the Middlewich Arm.  I walked up to help, and then it was Adrian’s turn to make the tricky right-angle turn under the junction bridge.

When we got to Stanthorne Lock, there were still two boats waiting to go up.  This lock is slow because there are limiters on the paddles at the bottom end, so it takes ages to empty.  But there was a queue of boats to come down too, so there were plenty of people about to wind paddles and push gates.

We carried on another half an hour, mooring on the rings through Clive Green Bridge, with views over the Weaver Valley.  Through the trees you can see the Top Flash, with Winsford up on the hill beyond.  There was only one other boat here and they left while we were having lunch so we shuffled along a bit to the most open section.

4 miles, 6 locks.  (57 miles, 18 locks)