Shiralee: Cruise 2014 # 22

Saturday 30^th August to Saturday 6^th September

 Sunday 31^st August

 Yesterday, with six locks and six miles to go to Middlewich, was something of a doddle, compared to Thursdays four miles and 14 locks, so why did it take the same amount of time; 3½ hours; to complete? Well, this was partly due to a hold up at Wardle Lock, which is at the junction of the T&M and the Middlewich branch. Other than that I can think of nothing that slowed us down. Still, the main thing is, we got there without being bombarded with rain.

 Despite the lateness of the day, our coffee comes first whatever else we have to do, and we really did need to stock up at Tesco’s. Thus it was that, just after midday we set off for the hike that takes us to Tesco. The road through to the store was rather congested, because the main road through town was being re-surfaced and all traffic was being diverted. Even the buses had to take this diversion, and that must have upset their timetable.

 Anyway, with this being the last Saturday of the month, it was also market day, so even the traffic that would pass through that road was also being diverted, causing an utter shambles for the residents and outsiders visiting the market. The great thing was, it didn’t rain until we arrived back at the boat. It’s just started raining again now. In fact, it’s coming down like stair rods.

 Now, assuming it doesn’t rain when we set off for our usual Sunday drink, we’re going to chance our arms and walk along the towpath to the junction where we’ll turn left and follow the towpath on the T&M to The Big Lock Inn, which is another two locks up. We’ve been to Middlewich on several occasions, but I don’t think we’ve been here at a weekend, so that pub has never enjoyed our custom. However, should it rain again, we’ll take the shorter walk into town and try a different watering hole.

 Monday 1^st September

 At that time of our last visit to Middlewich we called in to the King’s Lock pub. This time around we walked into town, bought the paper at Tesco and then sought out a decent pub. The Vaults, which is just opposite Tesco, certainly lives up to its name, all dark and dismal. The White Bear, or something similar, was all heavy duty oak furnishings, seemingly an attempt at modernity.

 So, not happy with those two; although I’m sure they must appeal to some; we crossed the main road and headed up the towpath towards The Big Lock pub. Along the way there’s another pub called The Newton Brewery Inn, the approach to which is by a long pathway up from the towpath, with a scattering of notices advertising its wares. It also has a huge garden, with climbing frames and such.

 To all intents and purposes this ‘appeared’ to be just the kind of place boaters might go for, but the noise emanating from the place as we approached it gave me pause for thought. I only saw the one bar; although there may have been another one facing the street; but this one was the worst of the three pubs we had looked at, with a sprawling, boisterous, ugly bunch of miscreants taking up all the space and hooting and roaring like a cackling, gaggle of geese. (There’s nothing quite like the sound of a bunch of uglies, to tell you you’re not welcome!)

 Now, I’m no snob, but I do like to take my wife to establishments that have a reasonably comfortable ambience, which none of the aforementioned could boast. Eventually we continued our walk along the towpath to The Big Lock. Ah, that’s better, a nice, comfortable upstairs bar, with a balcony overlooking the canal and the lock after which it is named. By the look of the meal that came out to a young couple who came in later, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this as a pleasant pub in which to pass a peaceful hour.

 We took the long way back to the boat walking down the towpath to King’s Lock, then up the Middlewich branch, stopping off at the hire boat company for an ice cream. All in all, a pretty good lunchtime, not even spoiled by the effort taken in finding a decent watering hole.

 The rest of the day turned out rather warm and, for me, just a little uncomfortable and, with the promise of more such weather to come this week, we let the fire go out. It’s a wee bit chilly this morning, so I did need to don my cardy, but not too cold to light the fire again. Hopefully the forecasters aren’t telling us porkies; else we’ll have to do just that.

 Tuesday 2^nd September

 Having shopped at Tesco on Saturday morning and finding that they had no uncut wholemeal bread, we left it until yesterday morning prior to departure. Believe it or not Tesco, who have two stores in Middlewich, do not sell large, uncut wholemeal bread. They do not bake their own bread, but have it delivered instead, since the stores are not big enough to incorporate a ‘scratch’ bakery. Still, with a population of 13,000 plus, that oversight is somewhat baffling.

 Even more baffling is the fact that the local, independent bakery, Chatwin’s, don’t sell large loaves at all. Figure that out if you can!! We ended up buying a small Hovis at the latter shop.

 The weather yesterday was just a little bit iffy, with drizzling rain, but, since we only had two miles and one lock to go to our next mooring point, we set off at about 9am and arrived at bridge 22 at about 10am. Eventually the rain cleared and we had a decent day. However, this morning, despite the bright start, it was pretty cold inside the boat and we hadn’t lit the fire last night, so on went the heater. Now, despite the promise of warmer weather for the week ahead, we’ll certainly rectify that mistake this evening.

 Wednesday 3^rd September

 After three hours of cruising we arrived at Barbridge at around 11am yesterday. The bus to Nantwich leaves here at 12 minutes past the hour, so we had ample time for a coffee and biscuits before the 12.12 bus. Sadly the bus turned up almost 15 minutes late, but we have loads of time, although sitting in blindingly hot sunshine was a bit of a trial.

 Thankfully the windows on the bus were open and we enjoyed a nice breeze, until some chilly mortal from further down the bus; a young, sour faced woman; came along and closed them all. Nobody said a word of complaint, not even me, but then we were almost in Nantwich, so it didn’t really matter to us as we’d already cooled down.

 Our trip to Nantwich had just one objective, the latest edition of Puzzler magazine’s Sudoku, which came out on 27^th of August. Now, I know we’re a bit late, but there were none on the shelf at Smith’s. This magazine comes out monthly and we can normally rely on Smith’s to still have them in stock, but not on this occasion. I’m now hoping that their store in Chester today will still have some, otherwise we’ll have to go without until next month. I’ll keep trying at other places, but it seems that Smith’s are tightening their financial belts these days.

 We’re not going into Chester just for this magazine, Sheila wants some bits and pieces from the Marks and Spencer store there and, besides, it’s a lovely, historic town to walk around and I’m sure we’ll find a decent coffee shop for a latte and sticky bun.

 The weather has certainly improved and was very warm all day yesterday, so we didn’t light the fire after all. However, it was chilly enough to put the heating on this morning, which meant I got to enjoy a lie-in until 6.15. If this weather continues - and we’re told to expect warmish weather right through to November - then the fire will stay out for some time to come.

 Thursday 4^th September

 We took the bus into Chester yesterday morning, mainly for Wifey’s bits and bobs, but also for my puzzle magazines, both of which Smith’s had in stock. The second of these magazines is a new one called Suguru. We also wanted a large, wholemeal loaf but, once again we couldn’t find a decent bakery, and, even though Wifey overheard another passenger saying they were going to Gregg’s, we didn’t find it.

 We also didn’t find the small coffee shop that we visited last time, so we had to settle for a different one, where we enjoyed a coffee and blueberry muffin, at a cost of over £9.00.

 Sadly we still couldn’t locate a copy of Golden Fox, by Wilbur Smith. This is the last but one in the series, The Courtneys in Africa. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand why some books can’t be found. Almost all of the Wilbur Smith novels can be found in charity shops, but not this one. Neither Smith’s nor Waterstone’s carry it, so I guess we’ll just have to keep looking.

 Unlike yesterday which, although warm for the most part, was also cloudy for most of the day, this morning looks set for lots of sunshine. We’re hoping to get in at Nantwich today and take a walk into town sometime.

 Friday 5^th September

 Yesterday was pretty warm and calm, so we headed off to Nantwich, arriving there at about 9.30am. After topping up with water, and witnessing an argument between two other boaters; one of which had pushed in front of the other to gain access to the aforementioned water point; we easily found a mooring spot and settled down for our coffee and chocky bicks. We then walked into town for shopping and returned by bus. Yeah, I know, lazy huh? Well, not when you have a trolley and bags to tote back.

 Nothing untoward happened to cause excitement for the rest of the day and all was peace and quiet.

 Avast:

 This morning, after much faffing about at PayPal and because Avast have taken no notice of my requests for repayment of overcharges, I finally managed to cancel all future payments to this company. OK, so I’m about £4.00 out of pocket, but at least I won’t lose any more money to these people. Incidentally, since the person who sold me this laptop actually set up the Avast Anti-Virus programme, I don’t think I’ll have any problems with that protection.

 Incidentally, on our visit to Nantwich we called into the local computer repair shop. I told the techie there about this Secure Line programme and asked if he could suggest an alternative. He told us that, so long as we had a decent anti-virus programme installed, we shouldn’t really need it, net even if we’re using an unsecured WiFi system. Hopefully he’s right.

 Saturday 6^th September

 Yesterday was beautiful, unlike this morning, which is cloudy and threatening. One of our favourite mooring places along the Shroppie is Cool Pilate, which is a very long stretch and is where there’s always a guaranteed place. So, at 8am we left Nantwich and took the four miles and two locks at a leisurely pace, arriving here at 10am.

 It’s pretty calm out there at present, but it’s still only 6.15, so anything can happen before we leave for Audlem, where we’ll stay for the weekend.

 Now, I know this is only a short blog, but I’ll post it anyway, because I’m not sure of the signal strength at Audlem.

 Have a great weekend.

 Dave and Sheila.