Three canals in one day.

We had arrived at Middlewich earlier than needed for the repair work to Rods boat in the hope that they may be able to fit it in earlier but not really expecting it, we were right, they couldn’t, so on Thursday as planned I locked Rod through the final lock for us on the Trent and Mersey canal and helped him brest up to another boat outside the workshop.

Later in the morning I moved through the lock myself, stopping to top up the water tank before taking the sharp left turn onto the odd little section of the Wardle canal containing its only lock aptly named Wardle lock, which I also passed through before mooring up on the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union canal to await Rod. He was ready later in the day so I locked him through Wardle lock and he moored up in front of me, it had turned out to be disappointing news and the expected repairs could not be carried out, he will hopefully resolve them later, but for now it is not preventing cruising.

Yesterday we set off fairly late around 10:30 in chilly conditions and as we pootled along the wind became very brisk.

This boat caught my eye, an unusual design which I would think makes for an equally unusual interior layout, but I thought it looked good.

At Stanthorne lock, our first for the day, Rod set the lock and I went in, the locks are named on the ‘Shroppie’, it was 11’ 1” deep and only when I had risen up a bit did I notice he had help and the helper was a chap I had met before on the Llangollen canal, I don’t think he remembered me although he said he did J.

I went through and it was about about 6 miles of open country before the next lock, the Middlewich branch is mostly wide and pleasant cruising although it was by now very breezy and quite chilly with rain clouds threatening to make it more unpleasant conditions.

Past this canal side house, which was probably once owned by the keepers of a now converted stable block where horses would have been housed and changed for fresh ones in the days of horse drawn boats.

 At Distinctive designs gift shop I saw a sign for ice creams but wasn’t tempted!

I was getting peckish around bridge 13 and attempted to moor at a pleasant looking picnic spot, but the concrete ledge below the waterline, known as the ‘Shroppie shelf’, which is prevalent where the bank is concrete edged prevents you getting within about 15” of the bank and bangs against the side of the boat if you don’t have large fenders so I aborted that and stopped further along after bridge 11 where it had steel pilings.

Rod caught up and we had a cuppa and sandwich before setting off again, the wind made for interesting positioning as we approached and passed Aqueduct Marina, a little sideways crabbing along, luckily nice and wide and no moored boats to be blown into.

It was then up through Minshull lock and a brief shower made me think we had made the wrong decision to move on after lunch but luckily it blew over.

Just a lonely tree.

Venetian Marina was next with Cholmondeston lock the last of the day, Rod locked me through this one and I stopped on the lock landing to assist him through before moving off to find a two boat gap on the moorings and call it a day.

Current mooring:

Totals this post: 9 miles : 5 locks