Cheshire, eventually: Day 14

After I’d posted the blog yesterday we had a call from Carol and George (ex Rock’n’Roll and Still Rockin’) in response to a message we’d sent earlier.  They came round for a cup of tea — and volunteered to combine their morning walk today with helping us down the remaining Audlem locks.  Of course the help is nice, but more than anything it’s lovely to see them, and give them a proper canal fix!  This morning the first boat headed down the locks before 7am, and before 8 another couple had been past.  We set off at about 8.15, thinking we should get into the procession before any more boats came along.

George and Carol parked by the Shroppie Fly and walked up to meet us, bringing their own windlasses.  Carol worked ahead, often joining the crew of the boat in front, while George and I stayed at the lock we were in.  We were also chatting a lot, so the only photographic evidence I have that they were here isn’t very good!

Audlem is always a pretty flight, but unusually the notorious bywashes were hardly running at all today, and some of the pounds were even a bit low.

For most of the run, we’d caught up with the boat ahead, and they’d caught up with the boat in front of them.  Then the lead boat moored up after Lock 11, and at Lock 12 there were boats coming up.  We still had to turn the one by the Shropshire Fly, though.

There’s a water point below that lock, and an Andersen hire boat which had been using it pulled off as we came down.  That meant there was an extra boat between us and the next lock, so the last couple seemed to take quite a while.  When we got to the bottom, we moored up, put the kettle on, and plied our helpers with chocolate biscuits to say thank you.  Then we said our goodbyes; I’m sure we’ll see G&C soon, because we’ll be in this sort of area for a while now.  Before setting off again we got the washing machine going, and waited for the wash part of the cycle to finish.  By now the sun had really come up, but there was a very stiff breeze which had a bit of an edge to it.

We had lunch on the move, then arrived at Hack Green Locks.  This always seems to be a place that never goes as smoothly as it should, and today there was a bit of hanging about while a CRT man prodded at the wooden buffer on the cill of the top lock, which is at a jaunty angle.  We were also following a hire boat down.

The wind was ridiculous at times, but at least it was mostly head on.  I would have lost my hat several times if I hadn’t had the chin strap deployed.  We reached Nantwich and crossed the aqueduct.

After the aqueduct the canal turns a right angle, and suddenly the wind was from the side, meaning I had to put some power on to avoid being blown sideways into the moored boats.  As the water point was free, we stopped to top up the tank and also use the handy recycling bins.  We then had trouble getting away from the side, which seemed odd as the wind had been blowing the other way earlier.  Immediately after the water point is the bridge which marks the end of the former Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal; beyond it is what used to be called the Chester Canal.  It’s all the Shroppie these days.

We’d originally planned to moor just before Hurleston Junction, but going up the locks at the start of the Llangollen would be more convenient, so we decided to do them.  Adrian jumped off at the junction bridge while I brought the boat round.  You have to take quite a wide arc here, and the wind was now sideways on.  Fortunately the bottom lock was empty and Adrian got the gates open quickly, and I was able to let the boat be blown level with the lock, at which point I gunned it into the chamber.  The only photo is from once I was in there.

There was a hire boat coming down the second lock, so we could swap — although they had to go back and re-open one of the gates which had swung shut.  The first member of crew to come down to my lock explained that the strong wind was blowing their boat onto the side; I did feel like asking what she thought it was likely to do to me.  Anyway, I managed to get round them and into the lock.  The next two pounds were very low, as much as 18 inches down, which made crossing the pounds tricky.  At the top, there are fantastic views across to the hills of east Cheshire and north Staffordshire.

There’s also a sign above the flower planters, which suggests there’s been an issue.

We moored up through Bridge 1 at the top of the locks at just gone 4pm.  It’s been another long day, but with good company and a couple of stops thrown in.  It’s been one of those rare trips where the number of locks exceeds the number of miles, and by quite a margin.

9 miles, 19 locks.  (113 miles, 139 locks)