Middlewich sunshine

A crisp morning ( ideal for walkers ) with sunshine and laughing ducks. We seem to be in the habit of waking or being woken at 7.00am these days, but it is a lovely time of the day ( honest ).

The Middlewich for me is a take it or leave it canal, but Lynne loves it. Large field after large field full of Frieshan cows does nothing for me, but at least there is plenty of mooring if you don't mind the smell.

The weather veered between very warm in the sun to very cool in the shade. At a very hectic Middlewich canal crossways we escaped along the Trent and Mersey heading for the Chesire Plain 250      

feet up through 26 locks. We finally moored near Wheelock.

Middlewich canal

After a good nights sleep we woke to an overcast day with a cold breeze. We continued our trip South down the Shropshire Union, sharing the double locks with a time-share boat and elderly crew. As a result good progress was made through the Bunbury Staircase locks ( 15 ft ) , Tilston Lock (10 ft) and Beeston stone lock (8.5 ft ), took on water and emptied the cassette loos, before taking a sharp left turn onto the Middlewich where we replenished our calor gas supply at Barbridge Marina ( not cheap ! )

Phoebe blotted her perfect record by disappearing for over an hour, causing Lynne to panic and rush up and down the canal bank. Eventually Phoebe turned up on the bow, meowed and went back to  bed, totally unphased !!!

We moored on the Middlewich.

SUC. Chester

Warm and sunny, much like yesterday. We had arranged to meet our eldest son and grandchildren today so we headed into Chester again, stopping for water at the slow tap, which worked much better today. Pleased with our success we set sail for the Northgate staircase locks. 32 ft deep but very badly maintained, they quickly wiped the smile off our faces. We stopped in the centre of Chester below the historic City walls to recover and get ready for our meeting , which was short but extremely sweet, cheering Lynne up no end. Our youngest granddaughter is delightful and has doubled in size since we last saw her, plus increased her vocabulary amazingly. A real chatterbox ! I wonder who she takes after?

We managed to team up with an elderly hire boat crew to get through the next four locks, equally badly maintained, but at least our frustration and exhaustion was halved , after which we found a place to moor pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

The formidable Northgatestaircase bottom lock 

The enticing staircase lock entrance under a railway bridge.

Telfords warehouse

The sunken narrowboat resurfaced

SUC/Ellesmere Port/moronocerus obnoxious

A better night and a warmer morning. Our aim is to make Ellesmere Port today not only because it is the first place for us to turn round (about 1.5 hrs) but it is the home of the UK inland waterways museum also, which should be worth a look.we moored at public mooring near the museum and were chatting to a couple from Liverpool considering buying a boat when a woman appeared and bluntly asked us to move as she needed to get to the water point. We directed her to a water point outside the museum cafe taken by a green narrowboat, the crew presumably having lunch in the cafe.   I pointed this out to her but she was still insisting we should move , at which point her moronic husband appeared on the scene, complete with boat , and was equally as rude. Lynne started a "conversation" but I suggested not arguing with him as you can never win against a moron. However, the museum staff confirmed we were in the right, but sadly only after we had moved several yards down the canal. These types of morons deserve to be stuffed and mounted in the Natural History museum with the dinosaurs.  The waterways museum was excellent. How the old bargee's managed to bring up a family in such a small space is astounding.

Our mooring place near the zoo seemed ideal for Phoebe, who delivered "presents" for us after each foray down the canal bank. Although Lynne is always on edge whenever Phoebe is "off boat",for obvious reasons, she always stays within sight and returns without problem ( Phoebe, not Lynne ).

Despite our exertions yesterday we both felt OK this morning and relieved to be cruising again.

We had the need to remove a beige tank top from our propeller today, another addition to our shredded wardrobe.

SUC/zoo

A restless night caused me to get up far too early,still tired. Maybe a day at the zoo will prove relaxing.

According to the forecast, weather today should mirror yesterday's, sunny and warm, although it feels quite chilly to me at this ridiculous time of the morning.

Whilst on the subject of wildlife ( zoo ) I should confirm the midland/northern canals boast large numbers of herons who seem oblivious to passing boats and/or urban living. Similarly we have seen far more kingfishers who also tend to hang around longer than their southern counterparts. We have seen several mink and a few cormorants. Buzzards appear to be very common.

Something else that appears to be common up here but I had not seen "in the flesh" before is the Airbus A320 Guppy, a bulbous transport plane developed to deliver airbus parts manufactured around the World for fitting together in France. Exciting stuff ( for me at least ).

Chester zoo has similarities to Howletts and Port Lympne in the way they were started, eccentric owners with unorthodox ideas on keeping, breeding and exhibiting species. Chester was the first bar -  less animal collection ( I hate the word zoo ).

Two locals gave us conflicting advice on the quickest way from canal to zoo, by road or bridle-path.

Needless to say we chose the wrong advice and had to retrace our steps,which was less than good news as the zoo is atop a huge hill. For your information the bridle path is the best choice.

Zoo entry is far from cheap but you get a free map, designed by Picassozz in abstract I think. It is practically impossible to find anything, least of all the monorail station. We opted to get lost on foot at no extra cost, thank you very much.

Plus points are the fruit bat jungle, the elephant paddock and the large aviary. The rest I found disappointing to be honest, but I am judging it against Howletts and Port Lympne, who not only breed endangered species but also repatriate them, which is fairly unique. The Chester chimp and orang enclosures are clinical and unadventurous for the inmates. Chester facilities for humans are superior, but so what.

Asiatic lioness's true love.

The group of elephants on the right are receiving a cooling hosepipe soaking. The gulls are not part of the exhibit.

It's a zoo out there

The only real casualty of my unintentioned swim was my favourite windlass,(not the one that broke my leg)now lying somewhere at the bottom of the Shropshire Union. An exact replacement was purchased at yesterday's "pit stop", thankfully.

Today dawned as bright, beautiful and warm, but further developed into very hot and sunny. We opted to visit Chester Zoo by boat, via the centre of Chester which is a clever combination of old and new. The old being a set of 3 staircase double locks which are in desperate need of maintenance and thus take forever to get through. Luckily another boat and crew accompanied us through, which halved the workload. In Chester basin we filled with water alongside a sunken narrowboat supposedly being re - floated by a large group of drunken hippies. The water supply resembled a hospital drip so we had plenty of time for lunch before we headed through beautiful countryside to the zoo. We moored for the night a short walk away ,planning to visit in the morning and spent late afternoon sunbathing on the canal bank before calling it a day.

Cyber Maestro

Today was diesel and gas day. The first of each month is our big spend day as we pay our credit card bill in full on the last day then launch into next month's spend for big items and live off whatever scraps are left until we get paid what we're owed ( we live in hope ) and any outstanding debts are paid off. I suppose most people think we're living the life of Riley with a house and a boat, but looks can be deceiving. We're asset rich and  extremely cash poor.

Typical of our luck we managed to pay online electric, house gas, council tax etc using the card before we left our overnight moorings  and pulled into Tattenhall Marina for diesel. 5 hours later we were still there as the worldwide payment system for Maestro cards had mysteriously crashed and thus we could not pay for the 232 litres of diesel and the calor gas we had filled our boat with. To alleviate our boredom we filled with water, emptied the oblutions and washed the boat. I even resorted to weeding the marina office shrub beds !!!  Old habits die hard. Normality resumed when they rectified the problem and we were able to escape to our original destination, The Cheshire Cat pub for a meal and Sainsbury's for supplies.

My leg is remarkably OK, as is the rest of me. Lucky, or what?