Rode Heath to Middlewich.

Travelled 9.6 miles, worked 20 locks in a time of 6 hours.

We set off from Rode Heath at 8.10am with warm hazy sunshine on our backs.  My first lock of the day was Thurlwood Lock and wooo hoo it was in our favour, it turned out that all but one lock was with us on our journey. Someone was smiling down on us.

I so love looking at peoples gardens and see all the effort or not they put into their little piece of paradise. This really caught my eye.

As we approached Hassall Green, we noticed that British Waterways was piling the visitor moorings and a very nice job they were making too.

We were very surprised to see the Romping Donkey being knocked about, it looked like it was being knocked down, but I see from a new facebook page for the pub that is not the case. The Romping Donkey has new owners and the place is being renovated, because part of the place was in a dangerous state. It looks like the new owners have got their work cut out, but here is hoping we may eventually get to eat there, we have tried twice. On the first occasion they were only doing sandwiches and you needed to pay cash as they had no card reader, the second time it was all locked up, so we had not been back since. But with new owners and such a lot of work going on, we may just have to give it a 3rd try.

Having done the first of the Hassall Green locks I walked on down to the second one with the roar of the motorway traffic ringing in my ears.

The lock is so close to the road, I could have waved at every driver and they could have waved back.

At lock 61 in the Wheelock flight, the arm on the paddle gear would not close, I tried everything to make it close to no avail, so we will be reporting it to British Waterways.

At lock 65 wheelock, I got chatting to one of the British waterways workers who was working on the other lock in the pair. I told him about lock 61 and he told me he had reported it a couple of days ago, we will still report it though, so maybe something will get done sooner rather than later.

We stopped at the sanitary station at Wheelock because I wanted to get some dog food, so whilst there we top the water tank up, and got rid of rubbish. The time was 11.30am and as we were a lot earlier than we thought we would be, we decided to carry on towards Middlewich. I made some lunch which we would eat on the way after I had worked the first three locks which were together. There are great expanses of countryside, with farms dotted about, but nothing much to write home about as far as scenery is concerned.

After Wheelock we passed Paddys Wood. Honest the wood has that name, it is not a name we gave it after our Paddy. The wood is only very small, but when we stopped there some years ago Paddy enjoyed running in and out of the trees.

Some how we came out of Rumps Lock with a football on our gunwale.

As we approached Kings Lock there was a herd of Swans enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

Kings Lock did not look very open.

At 2.10pm we turned on to the Shropshire Union Canal (Middlewich Branch) or the Wardle Canal. The first 100 yards or so were known as the Wardle Canal and is claimed to be the shortest canal in the country. I had the gates on Wardle Lock open ready for the boat to enter.

Wardle Lock Cottage looks very sad without Maureen Shaw there. I wrote in a previous posting that Maureen had left the cottage and died on the 17th March. The cottage now has new owners, but nothing has been done to the cottage yet. It will not seem the same without Maureen there. I dare say that when we come this way again things may have changed.

Last lock of the day done, we found ourselves a mooring just past the next bridge.

All moored up, Keith went off to the Kings Lock Chandlery to get a couple of items. We have decided to go into town tomorrow morning, because both of us are a little pooped. I have a feeling I will be in bed early tonight.