Narrowboat Log – Day 2

Stobart vs barge - the M6 seen from Lock 58, Hassall Green

AM: Awoke to drizzle, so slept in a bit. Carried on down the Cheshire locks through Hassall Green, mooring for lunch in the small village of Wheelock. Found a good pub for some lunch – the Nag’s Head. Not too long after we had finished eating, someone arrived into the pub… “Is your boat called Endevour? In that case I have some bad news…!” We rushed back to the boat to find the stern (rear) adrift – due to inconsiderate traffic roaring past at 4mph (ish – you should really drop your engine into tickover whilst passing moored boats). Luckily we were still attached at the bow (front) and could rescue the situation without any canal wild swimming!

Lock - Paddle open

PM: Weather still mixed as we carried on north-westwards towards the Middlewich flight. A bit of a queue in the other direction caused some confusion – lots of boats heading towards Chester and Llangollen, though it didn’t affect our progress too much.  The final lock at Middlewich known as ‘big lock’ to its broadbeam (14′ ish wide) size rather than the narrowbeam (7′ ish wide) that feature along much of the Trent and Mersey canal. This gives name to the pub we will later grab tea from! We moor just around the corner next to a lagoon caused by salt mine subsidence – a fairly picturesque spot given the semi-urban environment the canal passes through here.

Sunset over the fields near Middlewich

Summary

Weather:         Drizzle

Destination:   Middlewich

Locks:               21

See more photos from Monday

Back to the internets

Having been on a narrowboat last week, I gave up all forms of electronic communication. I didn’t miss it much – the main thing was being able to look up stuff to answer questions when were tanking along at almost 4 mph (6.4 km/h) or in the pub!

Weather was largely fine – a bit of rain one day but we did go boating in the North West so you can hardly expect endless sunshine. I’ve loads of photos to upload and much stuff to write – having kept a paper log! As you might expect… all of the pubs will be reviewed on my other blog – East London Drinker plus a few others from a recent trip away. The biggest adventure was taking the boat onto the Anderton boat lift…but I’ll save that for a proper entry. For now, here is us on the way home at Hassell Green – taking a break before tackling the second half of Heartbreak Hill.

Us on the boat