Friday 12 August 2016

Here we are in Nantwich

The boating today went much as planned, though the stopping didn't quite work out. We set off just after eight, after a bit of a struggle to pull the pins out. In fact it took the two of us swinging on a line tied to the top of each pin to get it to emerge. There must be something truly adhesive below that towpath. It should be recalled that said pins are actually marquee pegs, about an inch in diameter and 30 inches long.

I steered on a very pleasant morning and along a wide and deep bit of cut, so that we made around 3.7mph much of the time. Arriving at Hack Green, site of the secret nuclear bunker as advertised with big brown signs, we found boats working up each lock in turn, making Sheila's life as lockwheeler that much easier.

It's another three quarters of an hour or so to the start of the moorings in Nantwich, and here we ran into a bit of a problem. The moorings we'd planned to use, with easy access to a suburban road below, were almost fully occupied, except for one 60' space. Basically, we'd got here too soon. We've had to come on to the next stretch of VMs, further along the embankment and a long way from the road. Indeed we're almost half way between the road we first thought of and the aqueduct over Welsh Row.

So, a change of plan. We walked into town today, ate a very pleasant pub lunch at The Talbot and then did some shopping at Morrisons. Then we slogged it (and it was a slog) back to the boat in warm sunny conditions. We've been resting up since. Tomorrow, we'll walk into town again, not least to visit Clewlow's the butcher to buy one of their excellent pies.

We'll do the Morrisons+taxi bit in Middlewich instead.

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