Northwich

Last night as planned we went to The Red Lion for dinner. it was their two for one Mexican night so we had different dishes and shared them 50/50, I bet it will be the best value this trip, unless we come back.
It was gone 11 when we set off, we had a booking at Vale Royal lock for 2pm and its only about an hours run. There wasn’t room to wind by the bridge, so rather than going to the mouth of the Flash a ran backwards until the river widened and I could turn to head down stream. Yesterday we spotted a submerged boat so today we tried to photograph it. Not the best of shots through the rippley surface. We carried on down and moored on the lock landing for lunch, minutes before the rain started.On the way we passed these rather smart prefabricated bungalows, they were being built last time we were this way. The brick one at the extreme right has a rather smart bug hotel in the garden

After lunch we kept an eye out for a CRT van arriving to work the lock and swing bridge for us but no sign, so Diana walked to the lock and there they were, so we set off towards the lock arriving just as the top gate was opening but I still had to wait for the swing bridge to be moved, they use a battery powered drill to do this.

Luckily we discussed Hunts Lock with them because they were unaware we were going through so now they said they would see us there .
Passing Jalsea Marine all the moored boats have now left, goodness knows where they have all gone

Moving what's left on the bank may be more of a problem, I shouldn’t want the job of slinging and lifting it.

At this point I realised why we hadn’t seen a CRT van at Vale Royal as the two Volockies came hurtling down the towpath on their bikes to be at Hunts lock first.
Once through the lock the first thing we noticed was no dredging and the equipment tied up at the old British Waterways Yard. The yard is looking very sad now with all the windows missing.

We moored in the rain, it only started after we left the lock and stopped as soon as we moored. The reason for mooring here was a quick visit to Asda, that done it was up to the water point and then return to the mooring we have used opposite the marina.

Todays Journey

5½ Miles with 2 locks in 2¼ hours