Wheelock Tuesday 24 September 2019

Day : Tuesday
Date : 24 September 2019
Start : 1030
Finish : 1430 Wheelock below Sawpit Lock.

We were well stuffed when we got back from The Big Lock pub last night and we only had main course and a pint. The pie was superb. I do hope they don't spoil the place when they refurbish it and go upmarket with a coffee shop and cocktail bar on the lower level.

This morning as expected we woke to the rain and it didn't stop until about 3pm. half an hour after we had tide up. We would have been away a bit earlier but boats kept coming up Big Lock and I would rather sit in the dry than in the rain in a queue at the Middlewich locks. When we did leave it worked out OK. The boat ahead was almost up the bottom lock and a boat was waiting to come down, we had to turn the rest but it was a clean run out of Middlewich, Just above Kings Lock Duke and Duchess were about to set off, so thankfully we were ahead of them, there were also 2 Wilderness Water Rats moored there. Two of the crew/guests from Duke and Duchess came up to Rumps Lock to set it just as we were about to leave. As I write this we haven't seen them go past yet, so lets hope we are ahead of them in the morning.
Once past Rumps Lock we started meeting boats and I don't think we turned any more locks. The Thai restaurant Kin Ardi formerly the Kinderton arms beside Kings Lock looks as if its closed down and the name board gone.
There are lots of hire boats about at the moment, all the Anderson boats are out and we have seen several for other companies as well this week.

A single handed boater we met at one of the locks told us Wheelock was very quiet, a lot of boats must have arrived after he left because it was end to end. There is still only the offside lock in operation at Wheelock bottom lock and on leaving it we were able to go straight into the offside top lock, meeting yet another hire boat. We were going to go up to Malkin's Bank for the night as the locks were with us, but as we are in no hurry and it started raining even more heavily we called it a day a short way before Saw Pit Lock

Today's Journey7½ Miles 10 Locks in 4 hours