Saturday 8th June
We travelled up to Jannock on Friday evening collecting Simon from Middlewich en-route. Jannock’s interior was at 29.5 degrees when we arrived so we kept all the doors open for the first hour to let it cool down a bit.
We set off down the remaining Cheshire locks in glorious sunshine and made good time with a lot of locks in our favour, a situation made easier by the dual locks on this stretch and an extra pair of hands. At one point we met a Black Prince hireboat coming the other way and the lady on the boat exclaimed “Oh, it’s Mr Googly eyes” it seems we met them during our last trip on Jannock just as they were starting their fortnight cruise around the Cheshire ring.
At another lock a young lad appeared and started asking Simon lots of questions about what we were doing and why. He ended up getting a complex physics lesson from Simon which went down quite well as he was keen to learn.
At Hassall Green we noted that the Romping Donkey is still closed but this has nothing to do with the stories about their tattoo evening for minorities but more to do with the new owners altering the premises without the required planning permissions. The nearby Lock 57 establishment was also closed.
The Shropshire Union Canal Society were holding a ‘Saturn event’ at Wheelock. We stopped there briefly while Brenda visited the local store to find out that they did not stock any of the items that we were trying to obtain and had not even heard of decaffeinated beverages. We moved on and finally made it to Middlewich where we had a difficult turn into the Arm due to the wind blowing from the south combined with a boat already waiting to enter Wardle lock. We followed them through the lock and were startled as we passed through bridge 31 when a cyclist passing through the other way informed us that “they are waiting for you ”. It turned out that our friends were waiting in their garden for us to pass. We moored opposite their house and then went and had a good evening with them once we had eaten the Thai curry Brenda had been cooking in the slow cooker all afternoon.
And specially for Swiss blog readers, here is a full length picture of Jannock.
Graham
No comments:
Post a Comment