Hooray single locks again at Hack Green and a beautiful mooring at Audlem

Today – Vickers Bridge to Audlem, Shropshire Union Canal, 8 miles 2 locks
Yesterday – Moored

Yesterday was spent mainly walking with Lucy and Meg but not before meeting Geoff from NB Seyella moored just ahead of us at Hurleston Junction. Geoff was walking with his bearded collie Meg, and there was time enough to catch up on news over a cuppa on the towpath.  We would see Geoff the following day. 

I am amazed how wet the fields are in this area, its almost as if they are swamp.  Some of the farmers are grazing their livestock on it, and there are deep divots where the animals are treading.  This makes for tough walking with ankles stretching and straining as they get tossed from one side to another.. slow going across these fields being careful not to get injured. Still, it is far better than heavy plough!!

We pulled the pins fairly early this morning moving just under a mile to moor upsides Seyella.  We have an awful lot of wood on our roof at the moment for what we need now.  Our plans have changed somewhat for this part of the year, and No Problem will be at Norbury Wharf Boatyard for maybe a couple of months to have a part refit done to the saloon and galley.  We won’t be living aboard while that is undertaken and it will be well into the spring before we cruise again.

Mags made a cuppa for everyone while we transfered the wood and a couple of bags of coal to the top of Seyella before we said our fond farewells to this lovely couple and their K9 Meg.. We don’t know when our paths will cross again..

There were more boats on the move today than we had seen of late.  It has been a while since I had to slow for a boat coming the other way allowing him to come through the bridge first, but he slowed so much when he saw me that by the time he got to the bridge he was just trickling along. 

I hadn’t anticipated he would do that, so got caught with the wind as I had to stop.  Ha, the boat coming through even wanted to pass me on the correct side although I had been all but blown to the left hand towpath.. ie, he tried to get between me and the towpath.. He eventually realised that I had a bit of bother with the wind and passed on, what was for him, the incorrect side giving me a really dirty look as he did so.. cheers pal!

Just two locks today at Hack Green, and it was great to be back to the single locks again, those double locks on the way to Chester really are very heavy.

It was cold today, and this area at Coole Pilate is probably one of the best moorings on the Shropshire Union Canal…

It was made by and maintained by the Shropshire Union Canal Society.  As you can see there is a long stretch of moorings with picnic tables and if you look very carefully you can see beside the table there is a stand designed for one of those handy foil type bbqs.  It made me think of summer and cheered me on this cold dank day.  Not one boat moored here today though, but it won’t be long ‘till these moorings are jammed packed full.

This evening we have moored just short of Audlem at yet another beautiful location overlooking the River Weaver as it makes its way underneath the canal.. I’ll take a photo tomorrow, it really is beautiful.