Problems never come one at a time……!

Some of the PIN numbers on the 3 top-up voucher purchased from the Morrison’s supermarket in Nantwich were illegible.  After various unsuccessful guesses and the use of a magnifying glass I gave up.  Jan didn’t want to lose the £15 so this morning we walked back into Market Drayton with Margaret and visited the local Morrison’s.  Jan headed to the Customer Service Desk leaving me free to race around the isles with a basket throwing in everything that’s expensive, tastes nice, but which is bad for you!  By the time she had the PIN sorted I’d filled the basket.
After walking back to Waiouru we ripped the pins from the ground and headed south.  There was a queue at the bottom of the Tyrley Flight of five locks with the lower gates refusing to shut.  Eventually the problem was rectified and we worked up the locks with Peter and I doing the technical stuff whilst Jan and Margaret provided the brawn! Shortly after the locks there is a long and very narrow straight through a granite cutting.  Not the place to met a boat coming in the opposite direction….. But of course we did!  I was accused of cheating by the opposing boater when I used the “girlie button” to extract myself from a difficult position.  He should see me play cards!

There are also a couple of very high bridges that span the cutting.

Peter & Margaret lead the way on Kelly-Louise

A runner was coming towards us along the very muddy and slippery towpath wearing his birthday suit and a pair of Tony Abbott’s “budgie smugglers”!  As he got closer we could also see he had writing on his torso.  Something about running 200 miles……?

Actually Jan thinks they a ‘Y’ fronts he’s wearing!
{Later..... Jan Swatridge of QISMA has sent me an email with the following link <here> to "Robin's Run which is a fund raising event based on running 200 miles in memory of Robin Gibbs of the Bee Gees}

We stopped on the 48 hour moorings at Goldstone Wharf for a late lunch before pressing on towards Anchor Bridge.  At Knighton we passed the old Cadbury’s Wharf where imported raw chocolate was delivered by narrowboat and processed to form chocolate crumble which was then taken to the factory at Bournville for final processing.

We both remembered the wharf from our Four Counties Ring trip in 2003.

Looking back as Kelly-Louise passes the wharf.
Travelling at speed past moored boats can result in missing the bend and running aground.  I wonder if this is what happened on this occasion?

There was quite a long line of long term linear moored boats around bridge 44 and 43.

However the scene was rather picturesque!
Oh, the second problem.  Despite me giving our address as NB Waiouru on the visa application form, along with a letter explaining we live on a boat and any contact must be by either phone or email, both the UKBA and Home Office have sent me letters but to the address of the sweet, elderly lady who so kindly let me use her post code to book my “Life in the UK Test”.  She lives near Heathrow and I now have 13 days to get the letters and arrange for the collection of my biometric data.  Damn, damn, damn!

Market Drayton

The day started overcast but with the portent to be sunny.  Margaret even suggested the forecast afternoon rain would pass to the north.  She wasn’t quite correct as there was some afternoon drizzle.

We quickly did the last two locks at Audlem and then passed through some lovely countryside on the way to the Adderley Flight of five locks.

The last two locks of the 15 locks in the Audlem Flight

The Adderley Five are almost in a straight line.

About halfway between Adderley Locks and Market Drayton we passed some private moorings on the off-side and both noticed this very familiar boat.

We arrived at Market Drayton in plenty of time to have a look around the Wednesday market.

The old covered market building in the town centre

Market Drayton appears to be known for two things.  It’s the home of the Gingerbread Man and the birthplace of Clive of India.  Apparently young Clive was a bit of a troublemaker and even ran a protection racket attacking uncooperative local shops.  He was also more than a little adventurous reputedly scaling the tower of the local church.

St. Mary's Parish Church, Market Drayton

The following nondescript building had a plaque on it which stated

“In this bakehouse at the rear of the premises William Chester first began baking gingerbread around 1850”

Opposite is a Tudor style building in original colours.  Peter informs me it was the Victorians who decided Tudor buildings should be painted black & white.

There is another Tudor house in the town that dates from 1653.  The plaque on the wall states “One of the survivors from the reconstruction after the town fire of 1651.  This boxed frame building has been a fruiterers, fishmongers, bank and restaurant”.

The other side

The was another, more dilapidated, boxed frame house opposite the ASDA supermarket

It was the small upper extension above the entrance to the pub that caught my eye.

And then I noticed the hole in the cladding on the face of the gable above the extension window.  There was movement!

A pigeon loft?

Jan and I were having lunch back on Waiouru when there was a knock on the roof.  It was a blog reader (Tony) who has been following our adventure from the start of the blog and knew we were cruising south towards him.  Tony and Pat have a beautiful Norton Canes shell which was fitted out by Sandhills.

Tony takes a photo of us taking a photo of him!

A beautiful boat

It was a very short cruise after lunch reaching the southern outskirts of Market Drayton before mooring for the remainder of the afternoon.

Audlem and the internet signal is poor!

The day finished on the 48 hour moorings after going up 13 locks of the Audlem Flight.  After a good night’s sleep we headed off this morning at 8.00am with nb Kelly-Louise leading.  This gave us an opportunity to check the engine rev’s we’d need to maintain the same speed as Peter & Margaret.  The morning was overcast so we wore our fleece’s until we reached Audlem.  Last time we passed this way in 2003 Overwater Marina wasn’t there.  Or if it was we don’t remember it!

Some people choose very clever names for their boats.  We wondered it this owner was one of them?

We locked up through the first lock mooring in the pound before walking to the wharf and then into the village.

On the non towpath side is George’s Pork & Poultry Stall complete with honesty boxes.  I recall reading something about a dispute between a stall holder and CRT and think this might be the stall?

The “Shroppie Fly” pub was open although there was a notice stating it was also undergoing renovation.

Jan and Margaret had a good wander around the two floors of handicrafts and souvenirs in the Audlem Mill Canal Shop but exited with empty hands.

We then wandered up into the village.  Jan and Margaret visited the butcher’s where Jan purchased some locally made sausages.  She is going to cook them tomorrow so judgement will have to be delayed until then.  I took this photo because I liked the large double doors.  It suggested to me that the gateway might have led to a former coach house, although they don’t appear to have sufficient height.

Opposite was the Bridge Inn, one of three pubs we saw whilst walking around Audlem.

Peter pointed out the large rock and plaque beside the village bus stop.

So the bear was prevented from fleeing by being chained to the rock.  It would probably have been a fight to the death between the bear and the dogs.  No bears in England…….. Guess that means most of the time the dogs won!

Back on Waiouru there were several hours of physical activity as Jan locked us up another 12 locks in the flight to reach tonight’s mooring.

Going up

Looking back

Part of the way up there was a lone brick building.  Initially I assumed it was former horse stables but the volunteer lockie told me the horse stables are at the bottom of the flight beside the winding hole.  This building housed the canal blacksmith and joiner’s shops.  They were responsible for doing the maintenance on the locks.

Red Melon and Hack Green

Last night Peter and Margaret took us to the Red Melon Restaurant in Nantwich for an authentic Indian meal.  Indian food is NOT something we are familiar with and neither of us like hot curry so we placed ourselves in their experienced hands.

phone photo!

The service was excellent with attentive waiters and the food was interesting.  We shared the various dishes and whilst the food was hot that wasn’t due to any hot curry.  It was an enjoyable evening together as we discussed tentative cruising plans.

In the morning we winded Waiouru above Swanley Locks whilst Peter and Margaret took Kelly-Louise to Swanley Bridge Marina for a pump-out and to fill the diesel tank.  The heavens opened and the wind rose just as we were exiting the Hurleston Flight of locks.  We headed south through Nantwich with Waiouru leading Kelly-Louise.  Once we were past the moored boats I was able to increase engine rev’s to 1400.  Any higher and Waiouru’s stern digs in and we get too much wash.  We’ve always had the impression that Waiouru travels quite slowly but to my surprise Peter told me he was having problems keeping up with us.

There was a boat waiting at the bottom of Hack Green Locks waiting to go up and another waiting to come down.  Having two crews certainly made it quicker to pass through the two locks.  The weather forecast for the afternoon was more showers and so a decision was made to moor for the night on the 48 hour moorings above the top lock. 

The forecast for tomorrow morning is cloud with some sun and In the afternoon rain.  The plan is to cruise tomorrow morning.

The old arched farm brick bridge immediately below the top lock is undergoing some serious renovation.  There were quite a few workers breast feeding shovels which gave me the impression the work wasn’t being completed by contractors.

The bridge abutments and the inner brick arch don’t appear to have been touched.  However the carriageway has been replaced with a reinforced concrete cap.

The parapets have been replaced with new bricks although I noticed the original capping stones have been reused.

The most interesting thing at Hack Green is the not so Secret Bunker.  There appear to be signs everywhere pointing to the location.

We didn’t visit the not so Secret Bunker today.  We’ll visit it when we’re next back this way.  So I’m not going to write about why it’s secret!

Our plan for tomorrow….. Audlem here we come!  Oh, did you notice I was able to correct the problem of the oversized text in the photo copyright tag? 

Back at the Start

After the weekly Skype call back to Perth it was time to wind (turn) Waiouru and head back to Hurleston Junction where we turned left onto the Llangollen Canal for the short run up to join Peter & Margaret on nb Kelly-Louise.

You start to realise just how small the network is when you meet boats you’ve previously met at a completely different location.  We found ourselves moored up with nb Bandreyas who we last met at Aldermaston Wharf on the Kennet & Avon where their boat was being blacked.  Small world!

We stopped at the top of the Hurleston Flight to dispose of the rubbish and top up the water tank.  Whilst doing that a boat passed going in the same direction.  Little did we know we’d shortly be following it as it very slowly (seemed less than tick-over) made it’s way towards Swanley.  In the end we got sick of going in and out of gear and pulled over to moor for lunch allowing it to go ahead.  Thirty minutes later we slipped our mooring and continued the short cruise.  A moored hire boat crew saw Waiouru coming around the bend and frantically started untying their mooring lines to get in front of us (?).  Heaven knows why because we’re not in a race.  Jan got somewhat peeved when we arrived at Swanley Lock 2 because the five male crew members on the hire boat stayed aboard whilst she went forward to lock down the boat from the opposite direction and then assisted the hire boat up.  The upper gate was leaking quite badly and the hire boat didn’t have the doors to the cratch closed.  The steerer allowed the bow to get too close to the gate and the water poured into the cratch before entering the cabin through the open doors.  This resulted in much “flapping” by the hire boat crew!

Shortly after the lock we arrived at nb Kelly-Louise’s mooring where Phil, the landowner had already kindly agreed to allow us to moor for the night on one of his vacant moorings.

So here we are back on the mooring where we were two years ago when Peter & Margaret so very kindly allowed us to live on Kelly-Louise whilst we attempted to sort out the mess caused by the first boat builder.

nb Kelly-Louise on her mooring in September 2011

Peter and nb Kelly-Louise 11 August 2013

Waiouru moored in front of Kelly-Louise

It feels like we’ve finally made it happen!  The plan is to have an Indian meal with Peter & Margaret in Nantwich tonight.

Nantwich

First task for the day was to drag out the two backpacks and reusable Sainsbury’s bags before heading into Aldi via the various footpaths.  Jan decided against Morrisons after her last purchase of root vegetables went rather slimy after only two days.  Most of the Tudor style building in Nantwich are rather interesting.  They look like they’re about to fall down.  The middle floor on the following appears to be toppling into the street whilst the middle section of the top floor looks like it’s collapsing inwards.

The bookshop appears to be collapsing towards the middle but also leaning towards the left.

Whereas the front of this next one looks to be collapsing inwards at the join between the middle and top floors. The upper storey with all the small leadlight windows looks to be toppling outwards.

Every window and frame must almost be unique in shape and size!  The following building is probably of a more recent era but it’s design is also interesting.

Cloud patterns in the sky walking back to Waiouru were also interesting.

If you haven’t worked it out by now I’ve been experimenting with the Canon DSLR camera.  Barry suggested I take photos in RAW format instead of JPEG.  The RAW format captures considerable more data which then gives greater control/flexibility when manipulating the file on the laptop.  I needed a plug-in for the software to load the RAW files and the change in file format has given me more options.  However I’ve also noticed it’s changed the font size in the copyright text.  That will have to be fixed.

Back on Waiouru Jan had a clean out of the food cupboards.  Her idea was to check and rotate the stock.  She has also been killing the wasps which appear to want to make uninvited inspections of the pantry.  We haven’t purchased any diesel since joining the Trent and Mersey at Shardlow and it seemed an opportune time to check the accuracy of the diesel gauge by dipping the tank.  The propulsion tank is approximately one third full (100 litres) which should get us to Turner’s Garage at Wheaton Ashton.  The other two tanks (Hurricane and Refleks) are full as we haven’t used either of them.