Wednesday 3rd May
Barbridge to Wheelock
Today was another sunny day, though it was a little breezy.
It turned into a long day for us for various reasons.
We started off only a minute or two after 8.00, and 5 minutes later, we turned onto the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union canal.
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| The Middlewich Branch |
Soon afterwards we arrived at Cholmondeston Lock and after we’d gone down it, we
stopped at Venetian Marina for a pump out. I also took the chance to stock up
on bread and milk.
Next were Minshull Lock, Stanthorne Lock and Wardle Lock.
There were a lot of boats around on this canal and we got held up at the locks as
there were boats ahead of us. We also got held up at bridges where we had to
wait for oncoming boats. So progress was quite slow.
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| 1. Interesting house |
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| 2. Another interesting house (originally stabling for canal horses) |
We turned off the Middlewich onto the Trent and Mersey
Canal after Wardle Lock and almost immediately were faced with King’s Lock
where again we had to wait while another boat went through it.
A quick lunch on the move after King’s Lock before getting
to Rump’s Lock and then the three Booth Locks. The first one went smoothly and
I walked on ahead to prepare the second one for us. After a little while, I
realised that Steve was not arriving and when I went to investigate, I
discovered he had gone aground on an obstruction underneath the surface. He
spent some time trying to free the boat, but nothing worked. Even with the help
of another boat pulling ours, it was still stuck fast. So I went back to the
lock I’d set for us and let down lots of water, so that eventually, Chyandour
floated free! We carried on and went through the lock I’d first prepared what
seemed like hours ago! Just one more lock and then we soon stopped and moored
up for the night.
We have a mooring in open countryside, very quiet but we
are being buffeted by the wind – perhaps it will rock us to sleep later.
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Today’s miles and locks – 16.75 miles 9 locks
Total miles and locks – 227.75 miles
128 locks
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