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Thursday 16 March 2017

Middlewich Thursday 16 March 2017

Well an early start by my standards this morning, we were on our way at 7-15 am heading for our moorings to meet Chris and Gwen. We actually woke to bright sunshine but by the time we set off it had clouded over.
While I was waiting for the lock to fill I noticed 3 geese sitting on the wall of the weir, one of them in the classic one leg pose.
When we passed under bridge 162 CRT were still preparing to rebuild the wall.


I mentioned yesterday all the new houses going up near Booth Lane Locks, well today I took a photograph of it, its a Taylor Wimpy development called Albion Locks, I suppose that sounds better than Booth Lane Lock for a housing development. 
Maybe CRT will rename the locks to suit?

Bridge 165 Tetton Bridge has been extended 3 times, as you approach from the south its an arched bridge, about 10 feet in the arch drops by about 5" until you are almost half way through,
then it goes into an oblong  profile. Lots of boat travelling north to south have hit the transition between oblong and arched.

We met a boat just before Rumps lock so from here all locks were with us. The brickwork in Rumps Lock is all over the place but the lock is quite wide so doesn't present any problems.

 Below Kings Lock we stopped to fill up with diesel before continuing down the Middlewich flight, the area around the dry dock was very wet so it looks as if someone managed to flood the pound. We carried on through Big Lock and the back to our moorings at Park Farm Marina, This part of today's journey took 5.5 hrs. I have written the above while we wait for Chris and Gwen  to arrive and then we will set off again.

We off again at 3-30pm heading back towards Middlewich for the night, by 5-30 we were up through,  Big Lock, winded and moored outside the pub, moments before it started raining. 
This trip we have been lucky enough to see two pairs of Kingfishers, the first pair were flying up and down the canal, so no chance of a photograph, but today we passed two sitting on a branch.


Today's Journey
16.4 Miles 10 locks in 7 hours.

2 comments:

Alf said...

The houses on Booth Lane are being built on a brownfield site which used to be Albion chemical works, hence the name.

Dream On said...

Ah! Nice photo of a couple of martin fisherman :) They are so difficult to take pictures of. The mating season is starting soon but here, with the temperatures too hot for the winter, maybe the love is ahead :)