Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 23:06:53 +0100
From: David Leftley 
Reply-To: Canals <canals@ukwaterways.net>
To: Canals <canals@ukwaterways.net>
Subject: Trip report: Cheshire Ring pt 2

Wednesday 30th August

Having planned a 7 a.m. start, I drag myself from my bunk at 8 a.m.
and wake the others, then stick my head out of the door and find
myself face to face with a Rottweiler. Once said dog has been dragged
a safe distance away by its owner, I remove a large polythene sack
from the prop and we begin our dash through the city. Just above the
top lock on the Ashton we stop for water and are followed by a group
of 10 Venture Scouts aboard nb Nantwich; this is almost the only boat
we see all day. The comment from most people we meet is "We don't see
many boats along here", although from our experience this is hard to
understand: perhaps our plan to get through before the local hooligans
wake up has paid off, but we encounter no locals except the odd
elderly person or young family, the locks are in excellent condition
(except the odd one or two where the handcuff locks have seized, so we
have to make do with only one paddle). The surroundings seem
surprisingly pleasant, given  the canal's reputation - it appears that
a deliberate attempt is being made to regenerate the area and move it
upmarket, with several new developments (including the new
Commonwealth Games stadium) alongside the canal.

After an uneventful and unexpectedly pleasant trip down the Ashton, we
start to descend the Rochdale Nine. It had been suggested to us at the
boatyard that the charge for using the Rochdale is not currently being
levied; on arriving there we are pleased to find that this is true. We
are accompanied through locks 1 and 2 by two security men: this
stretch leads through a dimly-lit tunnel, and presumably problems have
been reported here. Lock 3 has one lower gate surrounded by
scaffolding poles and "Out of order" notices - possibly something to
do with the work done on this lock earlier this year, when it was
leaking into a nearby basement?

I took the boat down from Lock 3 to Lock 4, and had a long wait for
the rest of the crew to catch up and open the gates: there is no
towpath between these two locks, so they took to the road, and then
found themselves the wrong side of a low wall, with no apparent way
down to the lock below! Fortunately a couple of locals who were
spending their lunch hour by the canal showed them where a flight of
steps led down the opposite side of the wall.

Below Lock 4 we tied up the boat for half an hour and went to look for
some shops, and on our return found that nb Nantwich had caught us up.
Sharing the rest of the flight with them made the work much easier:
the top gates in one lock, with water flooding over the top, took four
of us to open the first gate, so we were glad of the extra pairs of
hands.

We considered stopping for the night in Sale, but the tram line runs
right alongside the canal for several miles, so we pressed on to find
somewhere quieter. Somewhere around Altrincham we moored up at what
seemed a nice spot, on the off-towpath side beside a playing field. A
few kids were playing there when we arrived, but left as it got dark.
Then about 9 p.m., there was a loud bang on the side of the boat as a
(still unidentified) projectile hit it. We decided not to stay there
for the night, but as it was dark by now we didn't want to cruise much
further - so we decided to move the boat a short way along as
inconspicuously as possible, in the hope that our protagonist(s) would
think we had gone completely. This plan worked well: we pushed the
boat off and allowed it to drift to the other bank, then pulled it
with the ropes along the towpath to the next field, where we moored
and enjoyed an undisturbed night.


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