Friday 5th April

We obviously hadn’t exhausted Muffin enough yesterday as he had me up three times during the night. I shall have to have firm words with him as it was my turn last night to get up and the night before, when it was Richard’s turn, he only woke up once! It’s just like having a baby!

We left Northgate Basin about 10am and headed up through the staircase locks. We stopped by Cow Lane Bridge and I went to Tesco. Richard reckons that food shopping is my favourite pastime – goodness knows what makes him think that!!



Muffin saying goodbye to Chester

We had five more locks to negotiate out of Chester before getting to the countryside again. Muffin found a friend – a black eight month old Cockapoo puppy and they had a great game of chase! At the last lock we came across a chap in a black boat, which didn’t have a name, but I would like to give him a mention as I have the greatest admiration for him. He told me that he had had a stroke 15 years ago when he was 50 and since then has been cruising the canal system singlehanded. His right arm doesn’t work and he walks with a decided limp. He can’t climb up and down the lock ladders so has to pull his boat in and out of the locks. It was a slow job and even though I offered to help him pull the boat out he declined my offer. I only wish we had been going the same way as him so help him down into Chester.

The lock free stretch between Christleton Lock and the Shady Oak gave me plenty of opportunity to catch up on emails and the blog but it is also so slow with miles of moored boats. Our Shady Oak mooring wasn’t as nice as last time – no view this time but so peaceful.