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Published: July 15th 2013
4 locks, 305 in total.
We spent the morning in the boatyard on rust removal and cleaning, as well as being Jummy the engineer's gopher where we could help out. Middlewich Narrowboats have been generous in so many ways – they offered the use of an angle grinder when they thought John didn't have one, a hose was provided for me this morning as I washed the boat – little things that really help and we are very grateful to them all. We headed off after lunch with full hot and cold facilities, a calorifier that puts the rest of the engine area to shame, and having filled up the cold water tank for the third time in 52 hours.
We are in new territory once again as we've only ever cruised the lower section of the Trent & Mersey. From Middlewich we'll headed northwards until we join the Bridgewater Canal, which takes us into Manchester. Then we head eastwards on the Rochdale, Ashton and Peak Forest Canals before looping back to the Trent & Mersey below Middlewich on the Macclesfield Canal. We had a flight of
three locks straight away but there were so many boats queuing the other way we had plenty of help as they tried to speed us through! We followed the R. Dane valley out of Middlewich, winding through the countryside on a generally wide canal except for the Croxteth Aqueduct and also where vegetation and trees have impinged – in these places it was sometimes difficult to see where we would be turning next. We hoped to moor after a couple of miles at Bramble Cutting picnic and BBQ site but the 3 moorings were full so we moored nearly opposite – good view still but not much space on the towpath. This whole area for many miles is salt country and there has been considerable subsidence over the years. Trying to remember my 'O' level geography, I believe that sometimes water was pumped into the salt mines and brine extracted, which wold make for instability. Much of Middlewich was deemed unsuitable for building until recently because of subsidence – I don't know how they've overcome this problem. Where these depressions have filled with water they are called 'flashes'. We passed one today which was part of the canal and there
A flash.
This is now a heronry. The little posts are to stop boats wandering amongst the derelict hulks.will be many more over the next couple of days. In the past, the old British Waterways used some of these flashes to scuttle unwanted/useless canal boats, hulks stacked on top of each other.
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Jan & Jan
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Still warm?
Caught up with your blog. Love the different boat names John & Helen and Pist & Broke amused me! Glad you sorted out the latest problems. I guess it will get busier now as the schools break up for summer so hope you manage to get your moorings ok. Really impressed with you keeping us posted and all the pics. It will be wonderful for you to look back on. Take care and enjoy....Love J & J xx