12 May 2014 Cheshire Cat, Christeton to near The Lock Keeper, Chester: Wet & Damp; Windy in Chester

 First thing today for B and I was a shower in a proper bathroom. We were moored beside the Cheshire Cat Pub and had had a chat to the owner or manager the previous evening during which a deal was made. From memory - for UK 10 pound they would let us use a vacated room's bathroom so we could ablute in comfort from head to toe AND they provided us with clean fluffly towels. BLISS, BLISS, BLISS. After a considerable time, squeaky clean with blow dried hair, we returned to NB Emily to find G and L champing at the bit to get going, a hundred metres of so to the water point where we filled the tank ready for our sojourn in Chester only a couple of miles ahead.

The Pied Piper of the canals...for ducks that is on a wet and cold morning as we progress through heavy locks to the centre of the city. Really tough pushing.

Grateful feathered friends.

Beautifully constructed water tower.

Sorry this was an attempt to photograph a shot tower through the front window. I find I can't always tell very clearly what photo I'm picking from thumbnail prints.This lead shot tower that you can't see was originally used for making musketshot during the Napoleonic Wars.

We were lucky and got a 48hour mooring near the Lock Keeper Pub and a 5 minute walk to the old part of town.

Chester Cathedral, fell in love with this stately building when we visited in 1992. Will go back tomorrow for a more personal encounter. This dear little church squirrel was so close.

East gate clock, looking along the medieval wall that sorrounds the city. As you can see a bleak day.

Hoping for improvement  tomorrow. Pleased to be eating in tonight with Robbie's Lasagne followed by Apple  Crumble served with choice of cream, custard or even icecream ! How lucky we are.

Must pop the slow gas oven on and put in the Lasagne.

M & L were delighted to find a curry for lunch in town that they thoroughly enjoyed, other than a pretty rapid dash back to the boat earlier than expected.!!!

Love to all,

M,L,B& G

10 May 2014 Willey Moor Lock to Beeston Locks and 11 May Beeston Locks to Christleton Shropshire Union Canal: Guests on Board

 Guests on Board

2014-05-11 02:57:00

Yesterday (Sat ) we arranged to meet Robbie & their daughter Abi to come on board for an overnight experience. Of course the offer to do so was from Australia and our glossy advertising that said The Emily could comfortably sleep 6.!!! We/ they managed to sleep under the table. Abbi was right onto the mechanics before bedtime.

Robbie ( Bless him ) after many stops & starts with communication  treated us with home made Lasagne and treat of treats a great salad, followed by Apple Crumble and "no cream", " no custard ". L saved the day with his signature dish....left over icecrem from Ellesmere. There's more...we also had fresh bread stick, and there is a renewed supply of chocolate in the cupboard. Guests are great !!!

Breakfast after our guests have been ejected from their luxurious bedroom.

New " lock boy " this morning.,along with apprentice Abi.

Wonderful after all these years to see Rob again with his daughter.

Abi, our resident Jack - in- a- box.

Abi in boat experiencing going down in a lock.

A not very good photo of Beeston Castle in the distance.

Mothers Day hug. She'd a tear when I heard from both children and Kerrie & Maggie sent a photo of Mum's daphne starting to bloom.

M & L have willingly been subjected to a new game that Abbi brought along testing their intelligence..

Can report there were signs of rapid improvement.

Love from all to dear friends and family.

 

9 May 2014 Ellesmere to Willey Moor Lock: Depart Ellesmere This am

Below is a sample of what Geoff cleaned off the rudder before departing , the men need to check on a regular basis and respond when the sound changes or they loose speed. Not that speed is a word that springs to mind when narrow boating .We just chug along and and have learned to cut right back when passing  " live aboard boats " they will tell you to slow down if  they can.

Retracing our journey past Blake Mere. This is a truly beautiful area.

Coming out of Ellesmere Tunnel, hope you can pick up on the craftsmanship of the brickwork.

The last glimpse of the lakes clustered around Ellesmere...this one Is Cole Mere.

Then we headed for Prees Junction very purposefully toward a pump out, a shower and hair wash for M,water & diesel .

Geoff on the job...lift bridge duty. As I do this M is on the job now & Geoff on the tiller. We have not long stopped for sandwiches and leftover curried sausages from last night. I was fortunate enough to just walk in to a little hairdresser in Ellesmere and just get a shampoo and dry. This was while M & L were in Chester. They said it was really buzzing with what seemed to be their equivalent of

our Melb.Cup. Everyone was in their finery on the train and all the pubs were buzzing.Above is the little backwater we went up to get to Whixall Marina for all our services this morning.

Pretty blossom and cottage,not sure where the Captain and crew are heading for tonight .

Love to all,

B,G,M&L

Not much to add:

After heading down the mile long Prees Arm to the Marina for a pump out (toilet tanks), fuel and water fill, and a luxurious shower (compared to the boat that is) and hairwash we winded and headed back to the junction.

And soaked up the scenery

L and G - still finding plenty to talk about

A dairy cow stops to watch us as she crosses the bridge

Geoff and Betty work us down through the Grindley Brook Lock flight.

Success and pleased as punch  😊

We continued on and moored up below Willey Moor Lock having done about16 miles for the day!

Presume we had dinner in the pub that night.

8 May 2014 Ellesmere (and Chester by train)

Ellesmere

2014-05-08 05:30:00

So we did not moor at  Chirk last night as planned...came on to Ellesmere, much better for us, while M&Lwent off to Chester for the day by train. Lovely mooring spot within easy walking distance of everything.
Had a roast on boat followed by M's signature dish...real home made choc fudge sauce over vanilla ice
cream ( L's signature dish from Tescoe's )this characterful old waterside store just out our window.

Starving boaters !

Waterside also..

M headed for the safety of inside as we crossed Pontcysylite Aqueduct from the opposite direction.

These are the 18 piers that we put our trust in. Could never capture the actual height or feeling of being
suspended in the sky.

As we enter...then looking over the edge.

Will trot off to the pub& try to get this away. 12.30.Thursday 8th.

To Chester by train

L & I departed early this morning, off to find the bus stop. A bus ride being the first leg of our journey to
Chester for L's mid morning appointment with an opthalmologist.

Having done a little research the night before the plan was to catch the bus to Shrewsbury then a train to
Chester. However when the bus to Shrewsbury arrived the driver advised we wait for the next bus due,
going to somewhere called Gobowen and catch the train from there - thereby saving us about 30 minutes.
So we decanted from the bus, somewhat sadly on my part as I'd being keen to see a little of Shrewsbury, the
setting of the Cadfael Chronicles, the 12C who dunnit series by Ellis Peters which my mother, my sister and I
had greatly enjoyed.

Upon arriving at Gobowen the bus driver was again very helpful and gave us directions to the train station
where, he said, we could get a nice cup of tea while we waited.

The Gobowen station waiting room - now the ticket office and tea room - how very, very civilised.

The ticket office was in one corner and the tea room servery in the other, the rest of the room being taken up with tables and chairs. The ticket seller told us we had 20 mins to wait, plenty of time for a cup of tea he suggested. Obedient little bunnies that we are we did as he suggested and shared a muffin as well.

Boarding the train, as B has told you, we found it full of women of various ages and the odd bloke dressed to the nines. We were bewildered for awhile, initially thinking wow, what sort of dress code do they have for the office in Chester, until a couple of young ones across the aisle from us pulled something feathery out of the plastic bags they were carrying and started comparing them. L twigged, having had a similar experience in Melbourne years ago on Ladies Day of the Melbourne Cup - "it must be a race day in Chester" he whispered, "they won't be so cheerful or looking like that at the end of the day" he added. Fascinators was what was being examined.

Sure enough when we reached Chester station we found it heaving with race goers. Asking a harassed looking attendent for directions he suggested getting a taxi to where we had to go, as the town was crowded with race goers for Ladies Day.

This we did. I don't remember anything of the rest of the day. Except that L found the English eye injection procedure far more stressful and painful than the monthy procedure back in Australia. So we taxied straight back to station and retraced our steps to Ellesmere and bed for L in our floating home, NB Emily. Betty's delicious roast was greatly appreciated.

7 May 2014 Trevor Basin to Ellesmere

No blog from Betty today.

L was up early and off to investigate the Pontcysylite Aqueduct more closely - I can't tell you the number of photos of nuts, bolts and seams I looked at. 

Having taken the path down to the River Dee. At this point the top of the metal trough stands 127 feet above the river.

The 17C Bont Bridge, also known as Cysylltau Bridge just upstream of the aqueduct. A one lane bridge, at it's narrowest point it is only 6 feet (2.0m) wide and is frequently damaged by cars. Unlike the Bega Valley Shire Council re the Cuttagee Bridge their council doesn't want to pull it down and replace it with an ugly and soulless two lane concrete bridge!

People on the aqueduct high above.

 The path down to the river which L has just puffed his way up

Some of the many thousands of nuts and bolts that hold the metal tank together - many of them still the original ones from when it was built.

Looking toward the bridge through which we are moored, and the boats we have to squeeze between.

Still not finished, L walked across the aqueduct taking more pics as he went.

Zoomed in on the lovely former mill building (now a residence) upstream of the Bont Bridge.

Downstream side of the aqueduct. Photo's give no sense of the immensity of the drop.

Once L returned to the boat he roused the sleepy heads and got us underway about 8.30am.

Coming under the bridge from what had turned out to be a very peaceful mooring,

Back over the aqueduct

B being brave and sitting outside - albeit on two path side, whilst I cowered inside.

B said in her previous post the boat traffic had quietened down; which it had - relatively.

This pic which I stumbled upon on a now (2025) defunct blog shows, in bottle necks at least there were still plenty of boats on the move.

The caption read: "Aaagh! It's chaos here as we approach the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, hire boats everywhere!"

And that's us, on the left, in our hire boat and from B's reaction it's a close shave if not a bump. I do  remember B and I sitting in the bow and saying  "sorry, sorry" a lot - especially as the canals got busier  😳😳.

Back across the Chirk Aqueduct - it had taken us 2 1/2 hours to get this far!

No more pics for the rest of the day - either because it was uneventful or so stress inducing we forgot to take pics!

Whatever, all up it was 14 odd miles back to Ellesmere. We must have got in quite late but were lucky and found a mooring in the basin close to the supermarket, pub and shops.