I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Muffin we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Thursday 4 October 2012

Wednesday 4th October

A lovely bright and sunny morning and I had a good night’s sleep.  The world looks very different today J

clip_image002It wasn’t long before we arrived in Chester but sadly we had to go straight through this time as we need to be in Nantwich on Friday. However it will be one of our first ports of call next year.  The canal into Chester was lovely with some nice houses and lots of willow trees.  There was a lock on our right down to the Dee Branch and some nice visitor’s moorings on our part of the canal.  Round the corner we came to the three Northgate Staircase Locks which took us up 33 feet.  These locks were hewn out of solid rock and when the River Dee was directly connect to the Shropshire Union Canal there used to be five locks.   As I was preparing the locks another boat came up which was single handed so we tied the two boats together which meant that there were two of us to man the locks which was just as well as they were hard work L

clip_image004At the top of the locks we went under the City walls where the canal has been cut out of the rock – it was a lovely stretch of waterway.  We moored up just beyond the walls and went to Tesco – I hadn’t been for ages!  After lunch we continued through Chester and to the first of five more locks.  We were fortunate to come across a boat from the Wirral Community Narrowboat Trust as they had two people doing the locks which meant that we were up them in no time J  We moored up for the night just beyond Waverton.

The whole journey through Chester was delightful and I am really looking forward to returning next year.

It was weigh day today and I wasn’t surprised to see that I had put 1lb on – I had eaten a lot of naughty food and consumed even more wicked alcohol!  Still we had a great time and 1lb isn’t too bad though next week is going to be hard as I am off to Bristol on Saturday for Laura’s hen night and then up to London on Sunday for the 30th Annual Dinner of the Master Chefs of Great Britain – of which I am a Vice-President J

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