Now Cruising South for the Winter

 Well it's been a while since we last posted on our blog but that was primarily because we had a few days looking after our grandson and left Leo in the tender care of Sale Cruising Club while we were away. So this posting covers our journey from Sale (just south of Manchester) along the Bridgewater Canal to join the Trent and Mersey until we left that canal at Middlewich yesterday.

Last Friday we left Sale in the wake of storm Lilian and not surprisingly we had to dodge round quite a few fallen trees.This one at Altrincham left just a narrow space on the far left which we could squeeze through.

As we approached and passed this obstacle it became clear that people had already been allocated to clear the tree - pretty quick service from the Bridgewater Canal Company. To be fair Canal and River Trust are also pretty quick to tackle fallen trees on their waterways.

We stopped on Friday at Lymm. This small town is very attractive and I just managed to get this shot of the High Street without cars!

A stream flows through the town and forms two lakes. This is the lower one in the centre and makes an idyllic scene. Further up the gorge of the stream it has been dammed to form a bigger lake which we walked round ....

..... and we found this rather intimidating face carved in one of the trees in the woodland.

On Saturday we carried on west and south to reach the end of the Bridgewater Canal at the mouth of the Preston Brook tunnel. This tunnel forms the northern end of the Trent and Mersey Canal and this picture shows the south end of the 1200 yard tunnel. Boats cannot pass in this tunnel (it is only 9 feet wide), so we had to  wait for our timed slot of entry in the ten minutes following the half hour. Northbound boats can enter in the ten minutes following the hour.

We moored that evening on the site of a breach in the canal which happened in 2012. The notice right by Leo says "Centre line of the Dutton breach 6 September 2012" In fact we had passed the spot just a few weeks before the breach happened when water and trees and mud cascaded down into the Weaver valley below.

Making use of the well finished edge to the moorings at the breach site, Ian painted back the aqua blue marking on the tip of the rudder above the water. A tricky job but successful. We used to have this colour on the rudder before, but it had been painted over on previous blacking treatments.

This is the view from the site of the breach looking across the valley of the River Weaver which is also navigable and which we have cruised in the past. The railway viaduct in the distance crosses the Weaver. The famous Anderton Boat Lift connects the Trent and Mersey with the Weaver some fifty feet below. We decided not to go that way, though we managed coffee and cake in the cafe at the Visitor Centre for the lift.

Coming round Northwich we passed the massive Tata Chemicals factory. New bits are being built where the cranes are.

Coming into Middlewich we crossed the Croxton aqueduct over the River Dane which flows into the Weaver. The picture shows us crossing the aqueduct. There used to be a wider aqueduct to accommodate salt barges bringing salt from brine pumping and rock salt digging round here. However the aqueduct was replaced some years ago and now just takes narrowboats.

And so yesterday we came to the locks in Middlewich. Oddly the first lock is a wide one taking a pair of narrowboats (another hangover from salt barge days), and the other three are narrow locks. The picture shows Middlewich Big Lock.

And here is the first narrow lock. This is the first narrow lock we've been through since arriving in Manchester on 25 June! They are a delight.

Having climbed the three narrow locks we soon reached Middlewich junction where the Shropshire Union Canal branches off to the right. Having discussed our route south over the last few days we have decided to go via the 'Shroppie' so we turned right. This route takes us along the Middlewich Branch to Barbridge Junction where we will turn south heading eventually for Wolverhampton. But the story of that part of our trip will have to wait for later postings on this blog.