Wheelock bound

We had supper from the Kings Lock chippy on Wednesday evening -

Whale and chips twice, please!




Meg had a jumbo sausage - and half of Mags’ fish! No batter though, we had an unfortunate incident a few years ago… it took ages to get the fishy smell out of the rug.





Leaving Middlewich yesterday morning.

What happened to all the swans? I hear you ask. There’s usually dozens hanging around here. Well, I don’t know either. Sorry.

The Kinderton Arms, opposite Rumps Lock, is having another rebirth, this time as a Thai restaurant.
 
They’ve just had a load of turf delivered, so they must be doing up the gardens too.

We had to empty Rumps as we were following a boat that had left the moorings ahead of us, but both the Booth Lane locks were set for us by boats coming down.

Booth Lane Top Lock


The Albion Lock development is coming on apace…
A bit of poetic licence for Wimpey Homes in the name. There is no Albion Lock on the network, the nearest to it is Albion Mills Lock up on the Rochdale Canal.

Mags waiting in a patch of sunshine below Crows Nest Lock…

…and Meg in a patch of shade.

Her coat is too heavy for sunny weather, but that’s in hand.

A good sized brood


After passing under the railway at Moston, on the edge of Sandbach, the canal leaves the slowly expanding conurbation and picks up the River Wheelock, winding back and forth as it follows the valley side.

Bank repairs just outside Wheelock village.

Playing silly buggers at the water point.


We pulled in around the corner at around half-twelve.

We’re usually passing here at some point in the Spring, and we’ve got into the habit of getting Meg clipped at the groomers here. It appears that Lynne, who ran Hair of the Dog from the salon next to the pet food store has retired, but Joanne, Mutleys, has taken over. We’d spoken about fitting Meg in, but she’s booked up until the end of June. She did promise to get in touch if she had a cancellation, and this morning, just as I was thinking of taking Meg out for a walk (in the rain…) the phone rang, Jo could fit us in if we could get there straight away. So ten minutes later I was dropping Meg off for her makeover.  Still waiting to collect her as I type this.

It’s raining. as I mentioned, but there might be a bit of a drier spell around lunchtime, so we might go a little way up the Cheshire Locks today after all.

Locks 4, miles 6