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| Early morning mist |
We had a couple of locks and then turned off the Middlewich branch onto the Trent and Mersey at Middlewich. This area is quite industrial including some salt factories – lots of salt piled up. Another 4 locks before we berthed at Wheelock to fill up with water and have lunch. The meal at the ‘Cheshire Cheese’ pub was good value but the pub could do with a bit of TLC.
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| Wheelock |
After Wheelock it was all the way up ‘Heartbreak Hill’ as this section of the canal has been known by generations of boaters – all 250 feet of it. There were 20 locks to keep us busy before we berthed for the evening just short of Red Bull. We have 6 more locks in the morning (they’re included in the 250 feet) and that’s it – no more before Stoke-on-Trent.
After that many locks you certainly get up a routine and it didn’t seem to take too long. It’s often helped by the fact that you coincide with someone coming down the lock – I’m sure I have mentioned before that this means they leave the gates open and you don’t have to empty the lock before entering it.
Soup for dinner tonight and an early night – we’re all exhausted.
