Ants in our pants

Saturday 3^rd August

The end of our journey is definitely in sight now – we are on waters that we have cruised before, and by the end of the day we will be in very familiar territory (wrong word – aquatory?). We need to decide whether we want to get home on Sunday or Monday – if the latter then we will need to dawdle very deliberately. Probably it will be Sunday, though the weather may decide.

A Crowded Stern Deck

It was warm and sunny this morning, and we made a fairly leisurely start from Wheelock, getting under way at about 11:30 – Loulie went ahead with the dogs to give them a good walk before we reached Middlewich. Having reached the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, which is 26 locks with only small breaks between them, we had four more to do before reaching Kings Lock in Middlewich, but these are well spaced out over about four miles. Although we set out ahead of them, Just Joe came up fast behind us and I let them through – we later overtook them, moored above Kings Lock. At Ettiley Heath we passed a canalside property I always envy – a long stretch of bank and gardens full of shrubbery, with about four benches to sit and watch the passing traffic.

We met a few boats going the other way at the locks, just enough to help keep things going, including three old folk who were doing the Four Counties in a tiny boat less than 20 feet long. However once we got down into Middlewich, and the three locks in the centre, it became very busy, because Andersen Boats, just below those locks, were setting off a number of hirers on their first experience. This wasn’t too bad for us – we crossed a boat in each pound, and there was plenty of help at each lock – but there was quite a queue of boats at the bottom, waiting to go up.

Loulie doing Big Lock

We stopped at the water pint in the centre, below Andersen’s, and did some shopping, then carried on down Big Lock and out into the wilderness north of Middlewich. The Dane where we crossed the aqueduct was pretty swollen, but it was clear from the mud that it had been much higher flooding the fields – much of the rain which we experienced in the past week will have flowed into the Dane up in the hills. It started to pour with rain, and we tested an umbrella that Shirley had bought me as a present – with a very fetching design of Yorkshire Terriers in purple.

We didn’t go much further – Bramble cuttings had four boats, and our regular mooring just beyond it was occupied, so we went a little further and stopped at a remote spot. We moored up and fed the dogs, then we realised that there was a red ant nest right at the spot where we stepped off the stern. Ruby was stung on the foot, and they were swarming on Bridget’s leg. We moved a few yards, but there was another nest, so we went a couple of boatlengths and found an ant-free spot. However that left our bows sticking out too far for my liking, so I hauled us back a bit and we finally found a mooring which suited us all. The torrential rain returned, and the towpath is flooded, but we are safe and dry on board.

  

Map at 3-8-19

TODAY: 6:00 HOURS. 8.5 MILES. 9 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 80:40 HOURS. 95.8 MILES. 91 LOCKS. 8 BRIDGES