Cheshire, eventually: Day 2

Not as sunny today, but still very warm.  A couple of boats came past before we’d had breakfast and the second of them, a hire boat, left the top gate open on Compton Lock.  It meant the lock was still ready for us when we set off at 8.45 — Adrian walked down to the lock with the boat hook, to get an island of floating reeds out of the way.  We did three locks and then moored up, only about 40 minutes after we’d started.  We’d stopped on the moorings closest to the National Trust property, Wightwick Manor.  The gardens opened at 10 but the house didn’t open until 11 so we pottered about until it was a suitable time to walk up the road.

We’ve been here a couple of times before, but last time it was raining so we didn’t get a chance to see the gardens.  This time we had a good look round.

The house has lots of William Morris fabrics and wallpapers, and is a bit different from the usual NT places.

We went back to the boat for lunch and then set off again.  This bridge has a big arrow, but it’s for road users rather than us!

There were three more locks, all of them deep at 9 or 10ft.  We were in a bit of a procession, with a boat ahead and one behind.

We’d stopped moored up before the Bratch Locks.  The bit with the straightest edge turned out not to have rings, and while I managed to bang a stake in for the stern, it was much too difficult at the bow.  I ended up using a chain through the piling, which happens to be under water here.  Later, the boat behind also moored up, and decided they didn’t like the bit with rings and came in front of us — and copied the use of the chain.  You’d really think officials moorings at a place like this would be better.

We had a walk along to the locks to have a look (we’ll be doing them tomorrow) and I did a couple of interviews for a future podcast.

Speaking of podcasts, the latest espisode is out today, and it’s an interview with the outgoing chief executive of CRT, Richard Parry, that I did at Crick.  Click the links for the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music.  The Water Road is also on all the smaller platforms.

4 miles, 6 locks.  (16 miles, 11 locks)