Tuesday 23 September 2008

Signal at last!!!

I have not had a signal since Friday morning, and am fed up with Vodafone's coverage around here in particular. So that is why the blog is late and that there aren't any photos this week and Vodafone's days are numbered, roll on November when my contract ends. I can check the signals of other companies and there are at least two who consistently beat Vodafone on strength.
After leaving Chester, we cruised up to Chrisleton, it was our 43 wedding aniversery so we went to the Cheshire Cat pub for a very nice meal with Eric & Elsie off Bendigedig. The following day we moved on to Beeston for the weekend, and what a lovely few days it was, we had a barbi on Saturday evening. On Monday we headed for Hurleston locks at the bottom of the Llangollen canal, we climbed the four locks and did another couple of miles before mooring for the night. tonight we are in Wrenbury and plan to stay here for 48 hrs.

Message for Eric from California, the designer wheel was the result of an argument with a lock gate, my bike has been on that carrier almost a year and has survived hundreds of locks, however sods law says that sooner or later you will forget it's there and the bike becomes the meat in the sandwich between 14 tons of boat and an imovable lock gate. The bike has a new wheel and now lies on the roof alongside Eiddwens.
Well as this blog is so late i've added on this weeks as well, the signal is a little better today. We are on the Whitchurch arm for the weekend and have been into town to do a Tesco shop this afternoon, the weather is very good at the moment so we are making the most of it. Hope to have more to say next time.
See you all next week.

Friday 12 September 2008

At the end of the Shropi.


There are 3 lots of water here, in the foreground are the museum locks at the end of the Shropshire Union Canal, the middle ground is the Manchester Ship Canal and the sandy bit at the top is the River Mersey at low tide.


This is the lower basin of the Museum complex, which we have almost to ourselves.


First mate going for a stroll.



Going down the first lock with our little helpers up on top.


Halfway down Northgate Staircase Locks at Chester, a drop of 32 feet in 3 locks.

In case you hadn't noticed, the pictures are in the wrong order. ie. first last, last first!!


This weekend we are in The National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port. We are staying for a few days in the lower basin of the museum, and as you can see, we don't have a lot of neighbours! On the way we stopped a night in Chester having had a walk round the shops during the day.

This museum is the best waterway museum I have been in, they really have tried to make it customer friendly, with touch screens every where and some excellent information boards alongside the exhibits.

The weather has finally sorted its self out and so far we have had 3 excellent days. We had a nice walk along the Manchester Ship Canal this morning, and did the last of the exhibits this afternoon, so tomorrow I have got an engine oil & filter change in the morning and the GP in the afternoon, so a restful day!!

See you all nextweek.

Saturday 6 September 2008

Onwards and upwards

My engine is now complete again, Steve from Kings Lock boatyard at Middlewich came on Wednesday morning and removed the piece of bolt left in the head, fitted a new bolt and re-torqued it. Thanks Steve. After looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, we have moved on from Nantwich out into the country side and will stay put until Sunday and then move on towards Chester which is our next goal.

Thursday evening I lit the fire for the first time since last March, it went quite chilly early evening so we had to bite the bullet and get the chimney out of the front locker, along with sticks and coal, whilst trying to avoid the the rain. Half an hour and we were lovely and cosy again. you forget how quickly the fire warms the place up.
No photo's this again this week, my vodafone signal is just not strong enough to download them.