Saturday 2nd July
Today didn’t start off according to plan because when we arrived in Wheelock there was no where to moor up at the sanitary station or anywhere else for that matter. I think all the people who got held up yesterday when the locks were shut had either – stayed there if they were going up, or – moored there as it was late after they came down. Consequently we were unable to do the elsan (not really a major problem) or go to the pet food place. So we went straight to the first lock. On the way through Wheelock we saw Jeff and Jill (Aven’t Got One) who we met last year on the Maccie but they are going the opposite way to us this year so we probably won’t see them again.
We have come 3 miles and I have done 10 locks today but they pale in to insignificance when compared to the ones on the Rochdale, which was the last time I did any serious locking, so doing 10 was pretty easy, even though it has been a scorcher of a day here. We were following another boat and I had to set every one but as we were going up and they empty really quickly it wasn’t too much of a problem. Some of the locks along here are paired and so, as another boat was following us, if both locks were functional, I emptied the one we weren’t using so it was ready for them. I thought this was the logical thing to do because it meant when we left the locks a boat approaching from either direction had a lock ready.
We got to Hassall Green about lunchtime and as there was room to moor above lock 57 we decided to stop. We could see the Romping Donkey pub, in the village, from the mooring so we got our dog out and off we went. Unfortunately what we didn’t notice was that it was boarded up, until we had walked round there that is! However, all was not lost because there is a cafe/brasserie at lock 57 called, funnily enough, Lock 57 so we went there instead. I rather over did it on the bottles of Old Speckled Hen though because 2 bottles is nearly 2 pints (I usually have 2 halves) and it is stronger than the draught stuff and I hadn’t had any lunch. Never mind.
When we got back to the boat a nice chap had moored in front of us and we spent some time chatting to him (as I did again this evening – he is single handed and likes to chat, bless) and having a cup of tea. After dinner Ken did some fishing, as is his wont and he caught a 25 lb carp (photo in gallery) he was really chuffed. However, the chap on the boat in the private moorings opposite has been feeding the carp bread night and morning so they are practically his pets! He was impressed when he saw the one Ken got because he has only seen them in the water before and didn’t really know how big they were.
So we have had a lovely day today and will probably stay here tomorrow.
