Retirement with No Problem

Nantwich to Calveley, Shropshire Union Canal, 5.5 miles 0 locks

I was pleased we pulled the pins a little earlier than usual this morning.. we would only travel a short distance before the rain and wind took hold.  Not before passing famous junctions on the canal system..

The sign for the left turn to the Llangollen Canal… (Lucy on the towpath is keeping up!)

But the large barge across the entrance to the first of the locks signifies that this branch of the Shropshire Union is a no go area as the winter maintenance program shuts the canal until the middle of March.. Next junction not to far away is…

This junction leads off to the right..

This is the turn for the four counties ring, a popular route for holiday makers in their hire boat.  I was amazed by the numbers of boats moored on the first stretch.. boats as far as the eye can see on round the corner in the distance..

It is at this point that I ventured to pastures new.  I have never been further along the Shroppie than this junction.  As a regular hire boater between 1975 and 2001 I never visited Chester and Ellesmere Port.  It will be Chester for sure, and depending on the weather we might make an effort to get to Ellesmere Port on Sunday when the Boat Museum is open. 

Not much longer on the tiller after this.. it got cold and the rain started to come down.  We didn’t have the canopy up and we hadn’t a particular destination marked out although I thought that reaching Wharton’s Lock today would have been good so that I could take a look at the remains of Beeston Castle.. But I can do that when this storm has gone through later in the week..

A phone call from home after we put the pins in at Calveley to say that No Problem’s British Waterways licence discs have arrived… hooray, and thanks Jenny at BW for sorting that out for me!

This afternoon I fancied a walk across to Bunbury to have a look at the Mill there.. Bunbury Mill has been restored and is still a working mill, selling flour to the public.. but it was closed today, only opening from April onwards at weekends and Bank Holidays..

The walk of almost 6 miles was a tough one today.. I took a wrong turning for a start which sent me a mile the wrong way.. I had my PDA with me too with memory-map on, but my left and rights got muddled and I just took the wrong path.  The land around Bunbury is very very soft and wet, almost bog like and the farmers graze their cattle on it.. poor things, up to their hocks in some places, but so very difficult to walk on..

Lucy and Meg the K9s are knacked tonight.. they had run from Nantwich this morning along the towpath beside No Problem.. so adding the walk to that means that they have both crashed in their beds!

Here is a nice place that is up for rent..

The chimney on this was very unusual, each of the four large chimneys had a different brick design on them.  I took this pic with my camera phone so couldn’t zoom in.. but what a splendid place this is.  The Hall itself up that drive is huge and is an 18C listed building now used as a bed and breakfast place.. 36 rooms all moderately priced!

Richard Fairhust commented that waterscape have stopped doing their mapping software now, so unfortunately the ‘our location’ page will just have a static map on now of where we are on a certain day.  Waterscape are now using google for their software.. and I agree with Richard is it not as good.  In fact I cant even get it to load properly.. I do have a slow connection though, but even when it is loaded down the bottom it says to zoom in click the plus in the left hand corner.. well that doesn’t appear for me.. ah well…

Bunbury Locks hopefully tomorrow.. a double staircase for us to go down and a wide lock too.. all the locks from here to Chester are wide locks.. not seen one of those since we left the Buckby flight back in October before making our way towards Leicester and narrow locks before Christmas..