Cruising Home for Christmas

We cruised on to the Trent and Mersey Canal with Captain Bob and Lady Rosemary but the last blog left us saying cheerio to them and in this blog we are cruising home for Christmas along the Trent and Mersey and we want to get home as soon as we can as we are missing our daughter, Chantelle and all our family and friends very much.

3rd December 2019 - 11.5 miles 0 locks

We left Acton Bridge and very soon had 2 tunnels to go through.  Saltersford Tunnel, which is subject to timed passage.  Southbound is half past the hour to 10 minutes to the hour and we made it there just after quarter to!   Saltersford Tunnel is 424 yds long and the next tunnel - Barnton Tunnel is 572 yards long.

Very soon after the tunnel we passed the famous Anderton Boat Lift.. This takes boats 50ft up and down from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey and is one of the 7 wonders of the canal.

The enormous Tata Chemical works dominates a large area on our cruise today.  It’s really not very pretty but still fascinating to see.

Our mooring tonight was at Bramble Cuttings.  I have read about and seen this fabulous mooring on other vlogs and blogs and it is beautiful.  I think that in the summer it’s very hard to get a mooring here as it’s so popular but today it was empty.  Well it was empty until about two minutes after we were mooring up - then we had a lovely surprise as the Narrowboat Girl Emma and her lovely mum Fiona moored up too.  Bramble Cuttings is opposite the towpath, it has picnic tables and barbecues and is easy to see why it is so popular.

4th December 2019 - 7 Miles 9 Locks

After chatting to Fiona we arranged to meet them both at Big Lock in Middlewich to do the lock together.  I was so glad we did as the gates were really heavy to open.  It was lovely to meet them and Emma’s YouTube channel is fab (link above).

After a brief stop to say cheerio to Emma and Fiona, we continued on until we reached Kings Lock and went in the chandlery as we desperately needed some coal and hadn’t managed to be near the coal boat yet.  There is an excellent chippy opposite Kings Lock, so as it was a lovely sunny day we treated ourselves and had lunch stood on the back of the boat - delicious!

Another 4 miles and we moored up after Bridge 158 and hunkered down for the night as we were out in the sticks.

5th December 2019 - 5 miles 14 locks

The next stretch of canal on the Trent and Mersey is known as Heartbreak Hill as there are so many locks.  Most of the locks here are in narrow pairs, although they are not all in working order.

I encountered a group of billy goats wandering along the towpath so jumped on board - I didn’t dare walk past them - do goats attack?  I just don’t know!  I managed to avoid them around the lock and made a run for it as soon as I could.

What a brilliant surprise tonight.  We moored up at Rode Heath and went in the pub for a couple of pints.   Suddenly there were hands on my shoulders, I turned round and it was Captain Bob and Lady Rosemary!  They had popped in to see us on their way home for Christmas and have a drink with us - how lovely is that!

I will continue the rest of our journey home in the next blog as I feel this is getting too long!

See you next time, thanks for taking the time to look at my blog.