Friday 22nd
We made Chester today but our timings were somewhat out. Ian estimated that 8 miles and 6 locks would take under 3 1/2 hours. Slightly out as he hadn't put in the equation the mile and a half of moored boats after bridge 114. It took nearly 40 minutes to arrive at the last one.
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| Still no end after the bridge |
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| Looking back, they stretched well beyond the bend to the bridge |
Then we met the canoeist that had no inkling that we were behind them. In fact at one point a canoe suddenly appeared feet away from our bow. I nearly had a heart attack thinking we would hit it 'cos no way would we have stopped in time, even though Ian had already put FS in reverse and we had been going slowly forward on tickover.
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| Canoeists unaware of our approach |
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| Talk about having a heart attack. It appeared right in front of us |
It was a chap on the bank that shouted at the lads to pull over and evasive manoeuvrers by Ian meant we missed the canoe by roughly a foot.
Then coming up to a fisherman with his pole right across the canal, we once more had to come to a stop as he suddenly hooked into something big, stretching the pole elastic as he tried to bring the fish toward the bank. Playing the fish for several minutes I was eager to see what it was. To his dismay the line snapped and the fish got away. If it had been me I would have been gutted, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "You win some, you lose some."
In the end, with every lock also having to be filled we eventually arrived in Chester by 1.30pm, a good 90 minutes longer than we had anticipated.
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| Christleton lock and the first of the five before we stopped. |
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| Chemistry lock and one more lock before we. moored by the centre |
We found a spot between bridge 123b and 123c with rings. It's pretty full with boats so very lucky to have got this mooring.Think we will explore Chester tomorrow never having been here before.
And seen on the journey,
And the wildlife,
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| Has it got young already? Looks like a tasty fly in it's beak |
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| How wonderful for the householder to have a swan nest in their garden. |
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| Colourful plumage on this Starling |
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| First Moorhen chicks. |
4 comments:
Hi Irene,
So good to hear you will not need the op. Hope you enjoy chester.
Bit of advise, clear the roof of anything that can be easily taken. We has a couple of likely lads try to pinch our life ring at 1pm in the morning.
Hope you enjoy Chester, plenty to see and photograph.
regards
Steve
We can heartily recommend Telfords Warehouse, on the banks of the canal in Chester. The food is delicious and a very good range of beers. We have not been there by boat but have friends in Chester who take us there. I'm very keen to do it by boat.
Kath (nb Herbie)
We passed you on Saturday morning near Chrisleton, but you had gone past by the time I realised it was you. We did get a friendly wave though. We usually moor up at the Cheshire Cat at Christleton and take a bus, or walk into Chester. Saves a lot of time and hard work. We had an enjoyable evening meal at the Cheshire Cat and treated ourselves to their breakfast on Saturday morning before leaving to go back to our marina. The newly opened cheese factory at Calverley is worth a stop off and they do meals too.
Elizabeth and Ken (nb The Lady Ysabell)
Hello Elizabeth, Oh shame we missed you but maybe see you on our return. Never gave the cheese factory a thought but may stop on our way back, thanks for the info.
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