Middlewich Branch

Wended our way from Bunbury to Calveley and stopped to fill the tank with water, and stopped again a couple of hundred yards along to visit the cheese shop. Note to self, worth a visit.

We cruised past our base, which seemed a bit strange, and headed toward Middlewich, found a nice spot to moor, and settled in for the last night of the year.

Today I removed the roof furniture, I have to make a modification to it to accept a wider gang plank.
Although they were fitted with gaskets there was evidence of water ingress, sealant should also have been used.

I have temporarily filled the holes with CT 1 sealant,

No sealant.

Water ingress is evident.

I'll blog about this modification when I do it, now where's my hacksaw?...

After yesterday's weather, back to normal.

That was weird, one day of strong winds and back to calm and dull, which is ok for us.
We had a long way to go today, what we did in two days will be done in one today, so an earlier start was required.

Cheers Cheshire Cat, see you another time.

The start of today's journey.

Slipped the mooring at around 09:30 (early for us) and headed South. First stop to pick up some provisions at Egg Bridge.

They made an effort to style the bridges in those days.

Built in 1770, rebuilt in1937

 All I found was this:- A road-bridge was built over the canal in 1770 so the Egg farm would not be cut off from the main road now known as the A41.  Thus Eggbridge Lane was named!

Shame about this...

Typical of local authorities, come on guys, you demand we bin it, we demand you empty it.

This is the start of tick-over alley.

 We counted the number of moored boats - 121; plus about five or six spaces unoccupied. Let's just suppose the average cost of mooring there is £1500 a year. (It's probably more). You do the maths.

This looks like a new build, and very tastefully done too.

Locks were hard work, that's why Lin's doing them........................Take cover!

The locks are in an awful state up this end of the Shroppie, they leak like a sieve, so much they take ages to fill, and the gates only just open against the weight of water in the pound. The good news is there's bits and pieces lying around to indicate that work is about to start soon.

Bunbury Staircase Locks were the last of the day, these weren't too bad, though they still need work done.

Even the cutbacks are being cut back...

You would only just get a wide beam through here.

And the wind blew...

Didn't it just, especially along the three mile long stretch of moored boats, it was whipping up into breaking waves on the water. The farmer who owns that length of land alongside the cut must be rolling in it, hundreds upon hundreds of moored boats.

We made it to Christleton, managed to wind and moored at the Cheshire Cat. Yes we did go in and had a nice meal. Gammon egg and chips, but they had just sold the last two Wagyu Beef Burgers, our first choice.

It was just too windy to use the camera today, had to concentrate hard and I nearly got blown off the counter by a sudden gust.

What a contrast to yesterday, and tomorrow is forecast to be back to light winds again. We'll see.

More tomorrow.

The plan was...

...Lunch at the Shady Oak.

No such luck as it's closed, and has been for a while by the look of it.

Oh well, nothing else for it so moor up, and lunch on TQ. Linda's finest Turkey and Noodle soup followed by a slice of Christmas cake dawbed with brandy cream.

The journey here was pleasant, though the locks were bloody hard work. Beeston Iron lock is particularly in a poor state of repair, we had to tie our bowline to the gate and carefully reverse TQ to assist with opening it.

Here's some pix:-

Approaching Tilstone Lock.

These little beauties were on display at Beeston Stone Lock.

Beeston Stone Lock.

Wharton's Lock.

More tomorrow.

I struggled to pass the Olde Barbridge Inn.

We slipped our moorings late again, we must be getting old.

Stopped in Nantwich for some provisions and a pasty and stopped again at the water point to refill.

We caught up with a boat that passed us while we were refilling. It turned up the Hurleston flight to Llangollen as we went straight on.

It was painful passing the Barbridge, but it had to be done otherwise we wouldn't get to Chester,  especially with our late starts.

It's been dull all day, heavy cloud but dry.

At least it's not raining. 

Moored just short of Bunbury, wide locks in staircase tomorrow, looking forward to that. 😊

Another lazy Boxing Day...

Had a late start, E 4 B, emptied the ash pan, brought in some wood and coal, disposed of all the rubbish and had a tidy up. Makes ya feel better for the rest of the day.

Slipped the moorings at 12:20, exceptionally late for us, and we didn't go far, only just outside Nantwich.

So much for the lazy Boxing day...
Filled the stern gland greaser, (I always seem to end up doing that job), investigated the shower room fan light, (we're gonna need a new one), changed the reading lamp near the galley...

Out with the old...

...In with the new.

More tomorrow.

So this is Christmas.

Had a lazy morning, opened a couple of prezzies...

Less of the "Old" please.

Chugged on down to the winding 'ole at the bottom of the Audlem Flight, did a 180 and came back to where we started.

The turkey was almost ready by then.

After a lovely lunch we watched a couple of LotSW dvd's then crashed. 😴😪😴😪

Christmas Eve and all is well.

We stayed overnight at Barbridge and moved on in the morning. Stopped briefly in Nantwich to water up and then Lin spotted the chandlery was open so I went in and bought a couple of bags of smokeless to lay in overnight.

Onward, and through Hack Green Locks where we moored up.

First thing was I had to change the fuse in the 12v TV supply socket. An easy job, but required a bit of ingenuity to get the cables back in behind the socket. It's all working correctly now and we can use the telly from it or charge phones etc. with a suitable USB adaptor.

Shown working with adaptor plugged in. There are two other USB charging ports in the ajacent 240v socket which can be used when the inverter is on.

I've been told I'm not allowed to do any more work until after Christmas.

Lucy's here...

We're here at last.

It's been a while since I last posted, Three in their wisdom wouldn't let me upload credit to my account last time, but this time they've updated their website and made it a little easier and managed to load up without a problem.

Had an awful journey up the M5 and M6, heavy rain all the way, started out at 04:40 and arrived at around 08:00. Couldn't do much more than 60 in most places due to spray and visibility, and then there were 50 mph limits in various places and 30 mph through Brum.

We unloaded the car and loaded the boat and went through the usual checks and got ourselves under way.

Through Minshull Lock, Cholmondeston Lock and ended up moored outside the Barbridge Inn where we met a couple who were interested in purchasing a share. We showed them around, explained the detail, and I think they went away with their heads full of info to mull over.

What's next? Into the pub of course, and we started with a curried parsnip soup followed by a Butchers Platter and very nice it was too.

Later, back in TQ, we crashed...

Nice and warmy.

We'll soon be back to base.

Nearing the end of our holiday although there are a couple of days to go.

The weather has been outstanding, today has been wall to wall sunshine again and we'll remember it for many years to come.

Loads of work has been done, some trivial but a requirement of the BSS, for example the fire extinguisher locking pins fell out when the extinguisher was tipped over onto its side. Easily solved utilising the existing elastic band retaining it.

Now the pin can't fall out.

Others are more complex, the battery links for example needed upgrading to cope with the possible higher load drawn by the inverter. It's one of those things that are highly unlikely to happen, but it is possible.

New 70mm□ links fitted.
Also ratchet strap security.

When I started this job I noticed the batteries had been mixed up. (We've been around this loop before). There were three domestic batteries and one starter all together in the engine 'ole, and one domestic in the locker above.

So I swapped the single domestic and the starter, so now all domestic batteries are together in the engine 'ole and the starter battery is up in the locker. 

Secured with a hanging bracket I found left over from the new inverter fitment.
Note the old smaller battery links from the domestic pack.

This little notice plate had to be removed from the switch gear below and placed above deck:-

It's stuck on with Sikaflex, an expensive adhesive 🤔

Not on the BSS list; I've changed the oil, filter and air filter.

Looking good after a bit of a clean.
NOTE TO USERS:- DO NOT STAND ON THE EXHAUST SPIGOT!

Also been down the bow thruster 'ole, dried it out, cleaned and painted with two coats of bitumastic.

'Tiz a bit black in there!

Hopefully TQ will pass the BSS on Friday.

Currently we're here:-

Way out in the sticks.

Sundown.

Seen along the way:-


There's loads of these about in the evenings.

May fly. The fish love 'em.

Spotted this Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
Note the hole in the tree.

More tomorrow - hopefully.

It's about time I blogged again.

It's been a while, as we've been out of 'tinterwebby range and I've lost track of what's been going on, so here's some pix:-

Ellesmere. Easy access to a nice town.

From the Prees Branch.

I just love sunsets.

Despite their appearance they're not very friendly.

Early morning.

The lesser spotted I believe.

We've left 'Golly.

Sad to leave Llangollen, it's a lovely town.

First thing was to fill the water tank; it took ages because the flow was slow and the tank was nearly empty.

Motoring on through the Narrows we met a few boats coming the other way, good job Lin went ahead with the walkie talkie to give me the heads up on what's in front.

Despite the sunshine it's been really cold today, in fact there was a frost this morning and we've lit the fire tonight.

We've lit Old Flamey.

Smoke on.

Well I'm chuggered.

Well almost; we were strolling along the unnavigable section of the Llangollen Canal, minding our own business, when we were accosted by a CaRT beggar this morning. Firstly claiming he wasn't chugging and saying we have nothing to fear from him, he then immediately went into his schpiele about how we could sign up to whatever it was he was selling, which was going to cost us money. Now if that ain't chugging I don't know what is. Needless to say, we declined his kind offer.

Nearly all the boats in the moorings have left, some as early as 07:00. At the time of writing this (16:30) it still hasn't filled up again. It's now very quiet here.

This was taken at around 10:00 this morning.

I remember the first time we visited Horseshoe Falls I was expecting some height with water cascading from above. I was a little disappointed but the scenery there and on the way made up for it.

I see this time the Winter debris hasn't been cleared, and probably won't be. There's a dead sheep hanging on the weir, just thinking this water feeds into Hurleston Reservoir and is piped to Crewe!

The weir was built to dam the river and provide a supply of water for the canal and Hurleston Reservoir. There is an adjustable weir in the building which controls the flow of the water and nowadays a compressor pumping air into the water to oxygenate it.

Loads of rubbish trapped behind the weir.

On the way back we followed the public footpath through the Chain Bridge Hotel grounds and over the River Dee via the Chain Bridge and then under the railway line and up onto Berwyn Station platform where we waited for the train to take us back to Llangollen.

Back in Llangollen.

We did some shopping in the town and bought some provisions, eggs, beer, crisps, beer, bread rolls, oh! and some beer.

There was a baker's selling Oggies, just had to partake, it was delicious.

Well there's lovely isn't it.

A complete turnaround in the weather.

Heavy drizzle look you. It's going to brighten up later.

Llangollen.

Yes, we finally made it. But what a journey, spectacular scenery all th way to Chirk Aqueduct, Chirk Tunnel, Froncycyllte, Poncysyllte Aqueduct, Trevor, Llangollen Narrows, and the moorings.

£12.00 gets you 48 hours, water and electricity.

It's a long walk back from the town, made long by the steep hill and steps to the moorings. If we stay too long here I thing we could get fit, can't be having that.

Today's start point.

As we turn the bend the Chirk Aqueduct presents itself. 

The railway viaduct.

They certainly knew how to build structures in those days.

Waiting our turn at the Pontcysyllte.

120 foot drop into the River Dee.

Some lovely properties nestled in the valley.

Looking back along the Ponty.

We had an early tea in the Corn Mill, sat outside woth a view of the river and railway station.

The Corn Mill - cracking food.

The Railway Station.

Barge parking:-

Almost full!

TQ is in there somewhere.

Ah! There... Note to self - we won't park our barge here again unless it's empty.

Never a dull moment on the canals, the Air Ambulance landed near the town this evening, caught it just after take-off.

It was on the ground for 3/4 of an hour, then away to hospital.

Earlier it was all hustle and bustle here in the moorings, now it's all gone quiet, there's hardly a sound, just the birdies singing their evening song.