Tag: Swan

Turning Right

True we thought we’d be going south, but the lure of a week in Chester proved too much, so we turned right at Barbridge Junction. Onto the Shroppie and headed the 15 miles north for a bit of a holiday

Turning right onto the Shroppie

We spent a night at Calverly getting to know the resident swans offspring,

before tackling the 11 heavy double locks. As this was before the recent heatwave we were playing chicken with the rain clouds and gale force winds. One minute it was beautiful blue sky, then those heavy laden cumulus clouds appeared over the horizon and in true Hollywood style we rushed towards each other and got soaked.

Will we get wet or not

But we mustn’t complain, the canals and the farmers still need the water.

Green shoots

However we got lucky with the heavy locks and buddies up with some happy holiday makers who were more than willing to share the load, so we made good progress mainly in the dry. We broke our journey with a good view of Beeston Castle through the round window.

Beeston Castle from the boat

We did attempt the obligatory treasure hunt but the ground had become so soggy that it wasn’t much fun and we assumed that the missing royal gold, Richard II is said to have tossed into the castle’s 370′ deep well must have dissolved by now. At least his reign as monarch dissolved as he was defeated in battled and Henry IV siezed power in 1399

Beeston Castle from the canal

Beeston Castle might be a lovely place to moor for the views but alas we get lousy WiFi reception there which isnt much fun when its too wet and windy to cruise. At least we got a nice sunset on our second night there.

We gritted our teeth as we cruised at tickover through the Golden Nook Farm linear moorings. There are roughly 130 boats moored along this mile and a half stretch, and unlike the endless scruffy boats that hog approaches into London, this does look like a nice friendly place to live. With a lovely view of fields over the canal.

That’ll be the Welsh hills in the distance

They even have their own bus stop, although I’ve yet to see a red double decker cruising this way.

Is this the most photographed bus stop on the canal- probably

Again we got lucky sharing locks on our final approach into Chester, and even luckier finding a spot on our favourite mooring. Under the walls at King Charles garden-Charles I that is not the III.

Spring Greens with a sprinkling of salt

Plan C is to travel south, aiming towards Rugby by mid summer. We might take a detour through some of the Birmingham canals that we’ve not yet cruised but we’re taking full advantage of our new found freedom to decide later.

First we were going to call in to Uplands Marina for an overnight stop. We had completely forgotten to include the side hatch window inserts in the repaint contract, and honestly who would want blue curtains on a green boat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As soon as we realised, Nick offered to do them whilst we cruised up to Lymm.

Sometimes blue and green make the perfect combo

Plus we still had some electricity left on the meter so we might as well charge up the batteries, especially as we still haven’t replaced the solar panels that were removed before our repaint. Not having our full solar capacity was most frustrating when we were enjoying a mini heatwave.

Enjoying the evening sun at Dutton

Leaving the lovely spring greens behind

Marbury woods, Northwich

we travelled through the 2000 year old salt mines and brine pits of Eastern Northwich, past the Victorian Lion Salt works, which is now a fascinating museum and well worth a visit.

The Lion Salt works museum

Through the modern day chemical processing plant currently run by Tata

From the ancient salt mines to the modern chemical works.

Onto Middlewich, where we moored against a perfect painting edge for Eric to touch up the blacking

Another opportunity not to be missed

Whist I kept a  eye on the wildlife

Or were they keeping an eye on me?

One of CRT’s new volunteers for checking boat licences
Wont be long now

Speed Boating

Speed boating, or Endurance boating, ….Well it felt like it for us. We rarely cruise for over 3 hours a day, but with so many delays both Eric and I were keen to push on. 5 or 6 hours cruising on a few days.

Approaching Aston Lock, below Stone

Back in mid December, a few days before the breach at Scholar’s Green halted our journey south, we treated ourselves to a Gold Licence intending to spend the season cruising the East Anglia waterways. 10 weeks later we finally broke free and sailed through to Kidsgrove.

Almost at Kidsgrove, still on the Macc

10 and half weeks later I got the phone call to return home, but now 4 weeks later we’re finally on the move again. We dutifully checked our route maps and CanalPlanAC says 115 miles, 69 locks, 57 hours.. Kidsgrove to Northampton.
But no, there’s been a major landslide at Brinklow and our direct route is blocked until mid June. We’ll have to travel via Birmingham, 125 miles and 128 locks and 68 hours. That’s almost twice as many locks to do. (James if you’re reading this, be warned we’re coming via Hatton.)
But we all love locking, especially when the sun’s shining, and we’ve already done 23.

Approaching one of our 128, somewhere below Stoke


We got very lucky with the Easter Bank Holiday weather, and we had some perfect cruising weather from Stoke. Even the occassional heavy showers ended with a rainbow

No one offered to swim across to find the pot of gold

We were surprised at how quiet the canal was, despite it being the start of the hire season and a 4 day weekend,

Dead quiet, This person obviously spent too long on their mobile


Perhaps the wild swan at Weston had seen everyone off. We’ve cruised this way a couple of times and for the past few years, this territorial swan has chased us off his patch, pecking at the boat. This time we were brave enough to moor overnight in Weston and saw him attack several trespassers.

Pick on someone your own size, mate


The much nicer Swan at Fradley was doing a roaring trade and has provided a photo fit for next years self print calender

Leaving the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction, and joining the Coventry canal


What Eric hauled up from the prop wasn’t quite so pretty,

It could have been worse, only a rope fender this time

And talking of pretty


We had a rained off day, so we caught the bus into Lichfield to have a wander around. The weather didn’t make for good photos, but we did both enjoy our mooch. It’s quite a historic place, in the 7th century, Chad established his Bishopric, and it became the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. Unfortunately the famous 3 spired cathedral was wearing scaffolding so not looking its best.

Lichfield cathedral



One of Lichfields other claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who complied the first English Dictionary


But whilst I might enjoy words, not a lot beats sunrise on your own boat.

Sunset on the boat