Just hanging around

Thursday, 06 May 2010 18:22

But patience has its rewards - I think!

A lovely hot sunny day today - just right for doing some inside jobs such as cleaning windows, sweeping out the stern cabin and whitening the grout around the tiles by the bathroom sink!

Then, excitement! Kings Lock Boatyard could service our Webasto (diesel boiler) a day earlier than planned, so we set off after lunch down one lock. This lock is a "one off". It is the last on the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie, going west, but it is not on the Middlewich Branch. Now that is a conundrum if I ever heard one!

Leaving Wardle Lock (4)

On the bridge over the junction with the Trent and Mersey is a clue to the above conundrum.

Sign on Trent and Mersey side

The Wardle Canal was once part of the Trent and Mersey Canal. The canal was built in 1829 to ensure that the Trent and Mersey navigation authority could control the junction.

We turned right at the junction to moor against a narrowboat outside Kings Lock Chandlery, just below Kings Lock (71), to await attention! We waited and we waited - Steve was very busy on another job and would have preferred us to keep our original appointment tomorrow! But we were there now and we had had no trouble with the boiler since he serviced it a year ago, so were prepared to wait.

We were very patient and watched other narrowboats pass us and negotiate the sharp turn onto the Middlewich Branch - some had to have a couple of "go"s at it.

Narrowboat enters the Wardle Canal under the junction bridge

Eventually we had a serviced Webasto and, after eating our evening meal still moored at the Chandlery, we moved over to the water point, before ascending Kings Lock and then Rumps Locks, finally mooring at dusk!

Middlewich Branch to Bridge 165A, Trent and Mersey Canal

1 hour 16 minutes (excluding stop), 1.54 miles, 3 locks