From terry@talwaldron.freeserve.co.uk Wed Sep 1 13:43:23 1999 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 18:38:59 +0100 From: Terry Waldron Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Subject: Trip Report - Cheshire Ring & Caldon Part 4 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Boat: Stella Crew: Sue & Terry Waldron Dates: July 23 to August 6 August 2nd A sunny start to the day again, really hot and good cruising weather. Stopped after the staircase to go into Etruria Museum - got it wrong again as it is closed Monday and Tuesday, we should have gone round it on the way up the Caldon. Stopped again outside Stoke Marina for a pump out and take water, run by Black Prince, very friendly and helpful staff. Decided to have a pint at the China Garden so pulled up onto the moorings outside the pub, got talking to a scotish family and told pub does not open for another 1/2 hour. Walked through the pub car park and went to B&Q to get new showere hose and wet and dry to rub down a couple of slightly rusty patches on the cabin paintwork. Pub open by the time I got back, menu looked very good so we decided to eat - finally decided on the carvery- 2 courses for 5.75 pounds, very good value even though we were first in and the vegetables were a little bit overdone (in our opinion). Took a carry out in our own glasses and set off for Harecastle. Quite a few boats waiting, one had been waiting over an hour, as we wait mor boats moor. A slow run through as one of the first boats wants to go very slowly, I was on just over tickover and the working boat behind was having problems in keeping down to the revs I was at, could not go any faster as I was only a boat length behind the boat in front of me. Decided to moor up at first available point and go for a walk, got some shopping and had a couple pints in what must be one of the worst pubs in Kidsgrove, moved on to another and they had very little choice of beer so went back for quiet evening onboard. Small Co-op and a Tesco not far from the station and fairly close to the first lock. Nice evening but getting fairly chilly by 2100. 3 August Up fairly early but did not set off until 0930, more boats around than we have seen all trip. We start into the Cheshire Locks and the sky is overcast but still quite hot, looks like we are in for some rain. The rain starts before midday but is very light, hardly worth putting a jacket on. Now we are starting to meet boats coming south so its easy going as we are not having to fill all of the locks in front of us. We stop at the Broughton Arms for refreshment, a very nice pint and the meals look really good. The pub has rings to allow one boat to moor but there is plenty of room for at least 3 more boats on pins. This pub is open New years Eve, need to get tickets. Rain now totally gone and the sun out, away again and finally moored Wheelock on just about the last rings, boats moored right up as far as I could see. Decided to go for a walk into the village while Sue was cooking, not a lot in the village, the pub nearest the canal looks good. Rain started again and getting harder as the evening goes on. 4 August Decided to have an early start due to the amount of boats moored, all going in our direction, 3 other boats follow us out. A dull start to the day but sunny by the time we get to Middlewich, we stop at Middlewich Narrowboats who do a 'Service Wash', why dont more boatyards do this???? Sue leaves the washing and we go for a walk round the town. The Anglers Supermarket sells everything you could possibly require for all types of fishing, bought a few bits and pieces to top up the tackle box. After wolking the town we found there are very few pubs that do meals, we went into the narrowboat and had 2 meals for 5 pounds, nice pint as well. When we got back the washing was not quite ready so we had a short wait. Set off in bright sunshine, all the three locks were in our favour as a boat had just come up. Had to wait at Big Lock as there were 3 before us and also 4 waiting to come up. This lock is so slow filling. Decided to have a short day and do a bit of fishing so moored at Brambles Cutting, Clyde loves it here we can let him off and just keep an eye out for any time he needs cleaning up after. Sat on the stern with a bottle of wine and fished, pulled out 4 small roach between us but could not entice the rather large carp to try our bait. He/she must have been 10 to 15 pounds and was on the surface right on our stern. Rain started about 2100 and rained all night. 5 August Still raining when we got up but was easing off after we had breakfast. Gave the boat a good wash off and cleaned the windows on one side. Got the binoculars out as we went through the flashes but nothing of interest around, last time through there was a cormorant. Stopped at orchard marina to talk boat building, their shells built by Measham, their fitting out looks quite good. Stopped again Wincham Wharf to talk boat building but the man we needed to see not in. Went into the pub for a couple of pints, Sue now has a taste for Labatts. As we had been past the Salt Museum so many time without stopping we moored to have a look. Very interesting, there is a curator there who gives you a tour, they also have a working steam engine which smelt as though it had been running very recently. Finally moored just before bridge 208. Cleaned the parts of the boat we had not cleaned this morning. No luck fishing tonight. 6 August Only about 1/2 mile to Acton Bridge, our trip on Stella is over. Moor up and get all the bags out of the car and pack - this is the worst bit of the trip - but never mind we are now to go for 10 days on the Lee and Stort - see our next trip report. Filled the boat with diesel and water, pumped out and left it ready for the next owners. Into the car and set off for Enfield Lock. --- The UK Waterways Network - http://www.ukwaterways.net/ * bringing the inland waterways community together * You are currently subscribed to canals as: george@adiva.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-canals-407N@ukwaterways.net