Macc had another visit to the reservoir this morning. The views from the top of the bank are really great.
We took the short cut back again, and Macc now seems very confident crossing a lock gate footboard. Yesterday was the first time he’d done it, and at one time he’d have refused point blank.
We set off at about 8.45. As we approached Barbridge Junction a boat was coming out of the Middlewich Branch, so I held back while he made the turn. Then we went straight past the junction.
There’s a main road alongside the canal here, which crosses at Bridge 102. In spite of its busyness, we’ve seen kingfishers here before, and today’s unexpected spot was a jay. When we got to Calveley we wanted to top up the water tank, but there was a boat on one tap and a work boat moored across the other. We went alongside the workboat and waited, as the other boat was just finishing up, and then pulled back.
The tap here is almost as slow as the one at Nantwich, so we were here a while. When we set off again, there was a very large family of teenage swans coming the other way all in a line.
The Bunbury Staircase Locks were the first locks of the day. When we got there we could see activity, and it turned out there was a boat coming up and one going down. Once they had done that, we went into the top lock and another uphill boat went into the bottom lock. It meant we could swap over once the first lock full had been let down.
While we were in the bottom lock I noticed a sign at the Anglo Welsh yard saying their diesel was £1.40 per litre, which is the best price we’ve seen around here. There was no-one in the office so I went and found the only chap on duty, and he told us where to pull in. We took on 71 litres, as our usage has shot up since having the Refleks stove on. When we got to Tilstone Lock there was a boat about to come out, but one of the crew started to close the gate. A couple of blasts on the horn were needed before he realised and left it for us. It’s a pretty lock, but there’s still only one top paddle working so it’s just as well we arrived when we did.
Our planned mooring was on the really nice stretch above Beeston Stone Lock. We stopped there on BR and found the internet to be dire — but we didn’t have EE then, and their coverage checker suggests there should be excellent 5G and 4G. But there isn’t, and Adrian had calls this afternoon so we decided to move on. A boat was coming up the lock, so we had another lock ready for us. The cottage by the lock has been completely gutted, with only the shell remaining.
The crew from another uphill boat arrived, and one of them phoned back to tell their boat to leave the gates open at the Iron Lock. The signal is so bad that they didn’t think they’d been able to hear, but fortunately they had. The guy also said he’d started listening to the podcast, having seen the poster in the cratch at Nantwich the other day. I walked ahead to the Iron Lock.
We comsidered mooring above Wharton’s Lock, but then thought we might as well go down, as we know there’s a signal there. Two boats had not long come up, but when we got there another boat was just coming in from below. This is another lock with only one top paddle working, so it takes about 20 minutes to fill meaning we had quite a wait.
This will be the last lock before our winter mooring, and probably the last one this year. Since Autherley Junction we’ve come down just over 230ft, but we’re still 312ft higher than we were when we came off the Thames at Brentford. We moored up a little further along, before The Shady pub. The internet here is fine, which is good. It also means we’ve done two days boating in one. After a late lunch (we didn’t arrive until 2pm) I took Macc for a walk while Adrian had one of his calls. We took the path towards Beeston Castle, which was looking lovely in the autumn light.
7 miles, 6 locks. (347 miles, 227 locks)