After an early start prompted by a 7am wake up call from yesterday’s swan (see yesterday’s entry ), much fun was had today at the Bratch set of locks. These were once a staircase of 3, but were long ago converted into 3 separate locks with very small pounds between them, that can’t even hold the water from one lock. They are carefully guarded by the lock-keeper who operates the red paddles to ensure nothing gets flooded, whilst us boaters do the gates and the blue paddles.

Sarah is, of course, super special though and soon had the lock keeper chatting away and next thing there she was running the show and operating the red paddles herself. Well, she impressed so much she was offered a job at the end of it – 8 ’til 8 with 3 days on and 3 days off! Tempting, but maybe not just yet.

We passed some lovely gardens along the way, and this lovely flowerpot lady doing some fishing

I also took some time at a waterstop to treat some of the rust where the paint has been flaking off due to all the hard wear and tear.

It rained over night and we were awoken in the morning to the tings and tangs of the water droplets from the over hanging trees.  We made a quick exit as we wanted to get through the heart of Wolverhampton today. We made good progress through the various locks and stopped for some scrummy bacon butties. Autherley junction and our entry on to the Staffs and Worcester canal was somewhat underwhelming, and lacked the hustle and bustle of other junctions.

We moored up in good time at 4.30 and the arrival of a hungry pair of swans and two signets.  We didn’t feed them and paid the price of one of the swans nibbling on the side of the boat (do swans have teeth?!).  We tried hiding, Toby hissed and waved a big towel, we even banged ropes and fenders on the side of the boat…it was one nutty swan!  Eventually it did leave us and tried it’s luck at Casual Water who moored in front of us.

We carried on down the Shroppie today, through some very impressive cuttings which must have been quite a feat to build back in Telford’s day.

We passed an old Cadbury’s warehouse – sadly no chocolate to be had, but there were some nice old boats similar to those that would have carried the milk.

We stopped at Norbury Junction for fuel – for both boat and human as there were some tearooms there as well as diesel. At 59.9 / litre the fuel was the cheapest diesel we’ve seen, so we topped up the tank to the brim. For Sarah and me it was cheese and ham toasties and a bowl of chips, yum. Just as we were finishing our food Richard and Jane from Casual Water turned up so we had a quick chat with them and picked up some tips for mooring on the Severn.

A drizzly night but it didn’t dampen our spirits, a quick look round Audlem Mill and Toby purchased some rag rug making goodies ready for my birthday. A heavy lock day today with 13 remaining at Audlem and two smaller flights of 5 each.  Scones purchased at canal side house sale, we saw two stalls with honesty boxes and goodies from cakes to pies to local eggs and vegetables.

The cuttings were really impressive with moody scenes and over hanging trees followed but steep rock edges and danger signs of rock falls.

After morning drinks, we set off from our mooring and stopped off at Calveley services to fill up with water. The tank on Oliver is massive so we could probably go two weeks without filling up, but then it takes ages to refill so it’s better to keep it topped up a bit more often.

We soon passed Barbridge Junction, where Mum and Dad had come down from Middlewich, and Hurlestone where the junction to Langollen is; from that point on we were back onto new waters for this trip.

It wasn’t long before we reached the outskirts of Nantwich, a small old town with some interesting sculptures such as this horse, created from the old lock gates.

We stopped here for lunch and a meander into town for some shopping, including a visit to Clewlows, purveyors of some of the finest pies on the canal network, according to the Pearson’s guide!

Sarah had some fun along the way capturing Oliver’s reflection in my sunglasses. Personally I’m not so keen on the closeup view of my wrinkles!

After our short break in Nantwich we continued on to the Audlem flight of locks, where we caught up with Casual Water again and moored up for the night.

A quick motor up to the winding hole and we were back on our way down the Shroppie, good job we had our hats and gloves as it was quite chilly. An early lunch of sausage and beans before a trek to the ruins of Beeston Castle which was built in early 1220s.  The 360 degree views were incredible, you could see for miles and it’s an obvious place to put a castle!

Oliver had a day off today, whilst Sarah and I headed into Chester for the day to play tourists and have some retail therapy. We’d stopped a short way outside Chester itself to avoid having to go through half a dozen locks and back, so caught the bus into town.

We had a lovely walk around the city walls which provided some fantastic views across the city and beyond; one section was particularly interesting where the canal had been routed in such a way as to use the old moat below the walls rather than them having to cut a new channel.

After tea and coffee and some cake to boost our energy levels we headed in to the cathedral, which had some fabulous stained glass windows, and tranquil gardens in the centre.

We then caught a different bus back and had a short walk along the tow path the rest of the way, and then put our feet up for a well earned rest.

An early and somewhat dodgy start as we were aground, it took Toby’s steering and my brute force to push us off!  I had great fun stopping the traffic at the road bridge which included a great big lorry and many a car, you forget that these folk are in a rush and on their way to work as we gently meander along the canal.

Excellent progress on to ‘The Shroppie’ and then an abrupt stop at Tilstone Lock and a queue of 5 boats.  CRT had closed the lock for a ten minute job and a broken paddle, it was some two hours before we managed to get through and on our way.

My highlight was meeting a boat called Yorkshire Pudding, apparently the owner was from Crewe!

We decided to go for it and have a longer day on the way to Christleton on the promise of a lie in the following morning.