Celebrating and starting back

We finally got round to celebrating our wedding anniversary last night with a trip to the Ring o’ Bells in Christleton village. The Cheshire Cat was closer, of course, being just the other side of the towpath – it’s OK as a pub, but very much part of the Vintage Inn chain (“Inn keeping with Tradition”, say no more), whilst the Ring is very individual – and the food is better.

As usual, we went early, just before six, and had no bother getting a table. It is a very family friendly pub, so if you go at that time be prepared for lots of small children and proud young parents. No doubt it’s a bit different later in the evening. We ate and drank well, though moderately abstemiously as regards the booze. The food comes in good size portions; the While you Wait items make perfectly good starters and I suspect you could have a good meal on one of those plus an official starter and a sweet.

As a result of all this indulgence, we didn't sleep terribly well, too much salt, probably, and had an early start this morning. It was perfectly possible to wind by the towpath works – I had maybe a foot to spare between the stern of Sanity Again and the work boat tied across the new piling. In twenty minutes we were back at our overnight mooring and setting off for the return to Barbridge. It rained for much of the way, so that I was very grateful for my waterproof overalls and Sheila prudently stayed down below doing various housekeeping jobs.

To be honest, it was a thoroughly dreary sort of morning, grey and damp and windy at times. I enlivened the dullness by measuring the length of the Golden Nook moorings with the Garmin, making it just 1.4 miles from one end to the other, though it feels a lot longer. We got to the Shady just on half ten and tied well along the visitor moorings.

Things have picked up weather-wise this afternoon. The sun has now come out and is drying the towels Sheila washed as we boated along. We’ll have a quiet night tonight and probably stay put tomorrow, as it looks like another wet day in prospect. It’s one thing to cope with such weather boating along a pound, but we’ve got the six locks up to Calveley to do next. Friday promises to be a better day for that sort of activity, and we’ve plenty of time in hand on our schedule.

Location:Shady Oak

Staying put 'cos it's persisting down

Looking at the forecast this morning, we decided to stay put after all today, have a quiet day on the boat after our exertions of yesterday (mostly) and make an early start tomorrow to return to the Shady Oak or thereabouts. It’s going to rain again then, probably, so it will by my turn to kit up in the rain suit for the long chug past Golden Nook.

We did make an expedition to Sainsbury’s, walking down the canal to the bridge at the second lock, turning left onto the road and carrying on to the mega-roundabout. Here we crossed several roads with the aid of light-controlled crossings until we came to the local road that goes past the Brewer’s Fayre pub the Twirl of Hay. Sainsbury’s is just beyond there on the other side of the road and we were able to get some of the heavier stuff we avoided yesterday, as well as an excellent loaf of bread.

It rained a bit on and off as we went, but had mostly stopped by the time we came out. We were feeling moderately well exercised by the time we got back to the boat, so the rest of the day has been for pottering and reading and doing odd jobs. The sun has come out now, but we’ve had some extremely heavy showers this afternoon.

One good thing to report: the Braidbar built community boat Pot of Gold, which moors just outside the Cheshire Cat here, has been out for a run and went down to the winding hole and returned without bother. Since she’s a 70 footer, we shouldn't have any trouble tomorrow.

Location:Christleton

Final stretch to Christleton

We’d estimated another three hours boating from the Shady Oak to Christleton and wanted to arrive at around ten, so we got going just after seven, or rather Sheila did whilst I ate breakfast. She’d rather drawn the short straw again for her day to steer, as it rained fairly steadily for much of the time. Clad in her rain suit, they weren't impossible conditions, just soggy. I fear the forecast for the next couple of weeks looks to be much the same as we’ve been having for the last few days – occasional spells of bright and warm weather interspersed with varying amounts of rain.

A chunk of the trip was spent plodding past what must now be around two miles worth of offline mooring at Golden Nook farm. It’s always hard to remember over the gaps of four or five years at a time, but we’re sure that there are more boats there every time, making a nonsense of the CRT plan to reduce online moorings.

Despite all that, we made good time. It seems likely that this stretch has been dredged recently as Sanity Again was charging along at over 3.5 mph when it was possible to open the throttle to 1200 rpm. As a result, we arrived just after half nine, having only just finished the wash load. Since we had a good bit of time in hand, and as the rain seemed mostly to have cleared away, we decided to have an early coffee then walk down into Chester, shop at the new Waitrose and get a sandwich lunch there, then mooch about Chester for a bit before taking a bus back.

Mostly, this went to plan. The new Waitrose is very handy, towpath side with dedicated shopping moorings not long after the last lock, Hoole Lane. We’d checked the numbers of the buses to catch back and only had to find a stop in town at which to catch one. Sadly, Chester doesn't do much in the way of helpful maps in the centre to assist with this process. There are quite a few fancy map displays, but they are all concerned with the various cycle routes around the place.

We finally found a more general one and, with the aid of that and some advice from a council staff person we spotted in the street, finally got to what Chester rather grandiloquently calls the Chester Bus Interchange or CBI, what the rest of us would usually refer to as a bus station. The 41, 41A and C56 all leave from Stand C there (this year at least) and make their way out of town along the A41 that passes the Jolly Trooper Harvester pub where you can hop off and access the towpath.

CRT are doing a bit of towpath improvement near there, right opposite the winding hole we plan to use tomorrow. We’ll just have to hope that the workboats tied to the towpath alongside don’t stop us from getting 70’ round…

Location:Christleton

Into Chester and back

Before mentioning today's exploits, I must fill in a lacuna from yesterday's account. This was that on the way to Christleton, we crossed with Cherokee, whose steerer is a blog follower; it's always good to meet, even briefly, one of those who otherwise are just known as stats on the hit counter!

I hope you had a good cruise yesterday and today.

As planned, we ourselves went down into Chester on foot today. I took the Garmin, so can tell you that it was  2.7 miles, and it took us about 45 minutes to reach the start of the shops. We'd already found out online that we could get a bus back from Stand F in Foregate Street, so knew that we could avoid the slog back uphill if we wanted to.

Main targets of the trip were Lakeland and Tesco. Lakeland is on the first floor of the Rows in Eastgate Street, and we got there at 9.15. This was a bit of a problem, as they don't open until 9.30 on a Tuesday. We filled the time in by going to see if the Julian Graves store was still there, but it wasn't. Julian Graves used to be a really good source of basic dried goods like fruit and nuts, traditional sweets and the like, but they were taken over by Holland and Barrett, and have been being closed down steadily every since.

H&B, meanwhile, are American owned, and we dislike them intensely, a source of expensive varieties of stuff you almost certainly don't need like vitamin supplements at silly prices and protein drinks.

Heigh ho, that's the free market for you, I guess.

Anyway, by the time we'd found the closed up Julian Graves, with sad messages from the former sales staff on the door, and then wandered about a bit, Lakeland was open and we could buy some boxes of EasiYo sachets and some food labels.

On then to Tesco, where we bought basic perishables, hopefully enough to see us through to Middlewich next weekend. Round to the bus stop and a quarter hour wait, then quickly back to Christleton.

Our mooring there was OK, but very overshadowed by the trees, resulting in bird poo over the roof and not much contribution from the solar panel. So we had an early lunch, then winded the boat at the winding hole before Christleton Lock, and pottered back just a little way towards Eggbridge.

We've tied on a rather shallow towpath mooring, with the stern sticking well out, but we're in the sun, it's very peaceful and we'll be able to make a flying start in the morning, having got all the turning round stuff done already.

Lots of photos

I don't normally put loads of photos on this blog; there are lots of other canal blogs that do, so I largely leave it up to them, but just once in a while it's nice to show that the camera does get some use around here. As we've not been this way since I started blogging, I thought that I'd try and show why we reckon this is just as scenic a canal as the more popular ones like the Llangollen or the Caldon.

First off is this superb garden we saw whilst walking to Bunbury village, where we had a pint in the Dysart Arms.

Then this is the canal just below Bunbury Staircase Locks, and this

is the approach to Tilstone Lock, probably one of the best locations on the system. Mind you, the locks were quite tricky in a 70' boat, only just long enough. It was easier to work Sanity Again down on the diagonal, and in a couple of cases, we had to fiddle around a bit with the gates to get her out.

Just below Tilstone is this really different boat; she has a slipper stern and wheel steering

These deer appear to be grazing on one of the rolling hillsides that make the canal so attractive, but in fact underneath there is a huge underground oil storage depot.

And this isn't really a house; it's the control centre for the WWII Operation PLUTO (PipeLine Under The Ocean). The oil stored safe underground here was piped all the way south to the Channel coast, and thence under the Channel to supply fuel to the D-Day invasion forces' beachheads.

Yesterday, we climbed up to Beeston Castle:

It's about 400 feet above the canal, and can be reached from Wharton's Lock. It costs over a fiver to get in, as it's run by English Heritage, but the views from up there are stunning:

That's the Cheshire Plain, obviously.

For something built in the 14th Century, the quarrying is quite remarkable. This is literally the last ditch, a final line of defence between the outer ward and the inner bailey.

It's a long, long way down the steepest side.

The path approaches from the south, and there are easier routes and slightly steeper ones.

Nearby Peckforton castle is a Victorian imitation, but still pretty convincing…

And that's the canal in the distance, about a mile away. You can just see Wharton's Lock. The railway in between is the line from Crewe to Chester and on to Holyhead.

Today, we've carried on to Christleton, which is as near to Chester we'll bring the boat this time. It's just not worth slogging down the final six locks. We've been to Sainsbury's, about 30 minutes walk away.

Tomorrow, we'll walk down into Chester, do a bit of retail therapy at Lakeland and possibly catch the bus back.