Sunday walk to Crewe

After an absence of two years we’re back on the 14 days mooring just north of Nantwich Canal Centre.  We really have to do something to prevent Waiouru being bashed around on the “Shroppie Shelf” which is a ledge protruding from the side of the canal about a foot below the waterline.  Tomorrow we plan to purchase a couple of wheelbarrow tyres which will hopefully solve the problem.  Unfortunately it won’t solve the problem of the Nantwich Golden Sweepstakes.  All day we’ve had boaters whizzing past Waiouru at high tick-over.  In some instances very high tick-over.  I don’t know why because there are the ‘narrows’ and then a bridge hole almost immediately in front of us and you can hear the revs drop as the steerer realises they are going to be forced to slow down.  Once we have the tyres Waiouru wont be banged quite as hard against the shelf.

After looking at the map of the local area I decided on a circular walk to the east reaching the western suburbs of Crewe.  There are a number of public footpaths in this area that are not shown on the Open Street Map which will give the walk some purpose.  It proved to be a very interesting route with the latter part of it passing through Wistaston where there were numerous dog walkers exercising their canines on the public land.  It appears this land is under threat of being developed into a housing estate and the dog walkers are not pleased.

On the way back there was a female blocking the gate so I politely asked her to move.  I was ignored!  I raised my voice slightly, but was still ignored.  She had here back to me so in the end I gave her a gentle pat on her derriere and said “Would you mind moving please dear!”  She turned her head and gave me a hard stare before saying “moo” and moving off to join Daisy and Buttercup!

Waiouru is moored at the red arrow and the blue lines are the footpaths I recorded and uploaded to the Open Street Map.  Nantwich is in the bottom left and Crewe in the top right of the map.  The total walk was only about 15km so not too strenuous.

On my way back through Nantwich I noticed a couple of roads with interesting names.

Dog Lane

Weaver Bank

Initially I assumed the latter was named after weavers who might have been located in the street.  Then I realised it was running parallel to the river (which is the River Weaver) so I assume this is where the bank of the river was located prior to flood control measures being implemented.  But then I might be wrong.

We’ve had some bad and good news.  Our youngest son is a hardened backpacker and has covered most of the world.  The “missing piece” has been South East Asia and he left last month to tour Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  We subsequently heard from him in Vietnam to say he had been unwell and diagnosed with fly lavae growing in one ear.  His situation became worse with a heavy fever and pains so he went to the international hospital in Hanoi where he was diagnosed with Dengue Fever.  During WW2 a significant number of soldiers contracted Dengue Fever.  It can be very nasty and is also known as “breakbone fever” because it makes the bones ache as if breaking at the joints.  The good news is he has a very comprehensive medical insurance policy and is on the road to recovery.