We carried on
towards Middlewich on Friday. We have to
join the Trent & Mersey and get about five miles North by Sunday as
the canal is being closed there on Monday until Christmas for bridge repair
works. Before we left we spent a while
watching this kingfisher patrol up and down the cut opposite our boat.
Some weather
records must have been broken today – it was like a warm August day until a few
clouds came over in the afternoon.
We moored up near a place called Clive, about
two miles before Middlewich, after a leisurely three mile cruise. We had lunch and then found a circular walk
to take us along the River Dane, into Middlewich and back home
along the canal. This llama was very
inquisitive as we crossed its field.
This old mill has been converted to a lovely home but the picture doesn’t really show
it.
At the far
end of its grounds there is a large pool in the river which must provide brilliant
swimming in the summer.
An old bridge
took us across the river and up a green lane.
We then had a quick wander around Middlewich, one of the many towns in the area made famous for extraction of salt. These ‘salt’ towns tend to end in ‘wich’ like Nantwich and Northwich. Middlewich has three rivers – Dane, Croco and Wheelock. It also has three canals – the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union, the Wardle and the Trent & Mersey. The Wardle is the shortest canal in the country and provides a link between the other two canals. For some reason Karen found this funny – I expect she thought it said ‘Oldfellows’.
On the way
back we rejoined the canal and saw another boat with a pumpkin. Fortunately Karen didn’t have pumpkin envy as
it was smaller than ours.
It clouded
over as we got back but this long straight stretch gave Buddy and the dog on
the other side plenty of opportunity to race up and down and get some exercise.