We finally passed through all 15 locks at Audlem, which were not too bad and the scenery on route was spectacular. Two things which really characterise this canal are:
1. Its very straight!
2. It is in the most stunning English countryside.
Once you are through the Audlem locks its not very long until you hit the Adderley locks. These are very similar to the Audlem ones, but there are only 5 of them! We decided to moor up before the last 2 locks at Audlem for the night and then tackle the 7 remaining fresh in the morning. We wanted to get to Market Drayton for some provisions, but mostly to catch up with Steve and Caroline.

I thought it would be a good idea to show you our progress on our post-lockdown cruise. We need to get back to where we started by the 4th August – so we’re making good progress.

• Audlum and Adderley locks and on to Market Drayton
• Black Flats (bridge 47) and on to Norbury

After a long time (so it seemed) in Nantwich it was great to get sailing again. As Wendy still has a very sore hand, we are going to take it easy. Not too easy mind you, as we would love to catch up with Steve and Caroline before we go our separate ways once we get back onto the Trent and Mersey canal.

Audlem is a simple cruise with just two locks between us and the town. There is mooring between the first few locks and we are hoping to stay the night in the town. There is a water point and a co-op shop – so we will fill up from them. There is also a lovely pub which may even be open and serving!

Well, we have really got to know Nantwich well. We’ve spent the best part of a week here and gone up and down between two winding points. Luckily there are no locks between then, so it’s been simple enough. We sail under the bottom bridge, turn round, fill up with water and perhaps pump out the loo, then turn around at the top winding hole. The only real issue is Nantwich is so very, very busy! It’s really hard to find anywhere to moor in the town, even though there is plenty of great mooring. It’s just so many boats are staying way over the 48 hours they’re supposed to and they are clogging the place up for the rest of us.

At one point we moored on the side where there is a concrete shelf that forces the boat away from the side, which is a bit of a pain to get on and off from, but with some clever use of our rubber fenders I was able to make it bearable. We stayed there over the weekend before setting off in earnest on Monday.

So, everything was going swimmingly. We’d found some mooring and discovered we were right in front of our good friends Steve and Caroline. My left foot has been sore recently so Wendy decided to take the dog for a walk in the morning by herself. Oh dear. Martha has a real thing about bikers and joggers and quite often she whizzes round and round like she’s chasing her tail when they go past. Unfortunately, this happened that morning but Wendy was holding onto the harness handle at the time, which caused her hand to be violently twisted and her index finger dislocated – ouch 🙄️

So, now we need to stay here for a while to get her finger better so we can tackle the 15 locks which are next on our travels. Probably a week to 10 days is how long the hospital reckon it will take to heal enough. Luckily for us there is all we need between two winding points and there are no locks between!

The Middlewich branch was short and sweet. It’s not very long and we were only on it for a few days but it has a character all its own. After sailing through one final lock we turned onto the Shropshire Union canal heading south. After a few miles, we arrived at Nantwich, which is the first place we are mooring. See the link below for more details. We next have 15 Locks to get through at Audlem followed by five others shortly after that. From that point on the locks are not too bad.

• Nantwich

So after all the locks of the Trent and Mersey canal after the Harecastle tunnel, we will be leaving the T&M to join the Shropshire Union canal. We first need to turn onto the Middlewich branch which is the link between the two. We will then join the main Shroppy canal at the other end and turn south to sail down the country, past the Llangollen canal and then we will come back up the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal and return onto the Trent & Mersey once again.

Once back on the T&M we will need to take stock of where are with the year and the purchase of our new flat and the situation with Dee’s flat too before deciding what we’ll do from there. If it is time for us to moor up for the Winter we will sail back up the T&M to just past where we stated as we have a canal side mooring already booked. Then it will be over to the new Flat to start sorting that out. Fingers crossed all these things work out well.

• Day 1
• Days 2 and 3

After the tunnel comes the locks. Lots of them. 26 in all to get through and they often come in batches of 3 or more! Luckily for us, we have the no-sail sunday rule – phew! We get a day off about half way through. Of course, we need to watch our use of water, as there are not too many places to fill up along here. In fact, this stretch of the T&M is quite testing, with few places to moor and not many facilities. But never fear, your intrepid explorers will press on nonetheless!

Click on the links below to see our onward journey. I have copied the first two entries from the last post, as they were a long way down the page and easily missed. I suggest looking at the Stock on Trent page as there was a lot to see and was one of our best sailing days so far this year. I will add all the locks as we crack on through them 😉

• Stoke on Trent
• Harecastle Tunnel
• Hassall Green
• Elworth

So the day has finally come when we can set off again around the cut. Of course, not everything is open with a lot of marina’s not open to the public and none of the pubs are up and running yet, but the navigation is now fully open. What a relief! And what a day too! Absolutely scorching. In fact, not to seem like a moaning pratt, but it was too hot! Wendy and I have not done locks in ages and we’ve got some of that odd issue from Lockdown which causes belly’s to swell and clothes to become tight. Anyway, as first days go, this one was a real test of stamina. 5 miles and 9 locks later we finally slunk in to Barleston and stopped for the day. Its lovely here, but we both just grabbed a beer and collapsed into the dinette to recover.

As first days go, this was quite short at just about 5 miles and 9 locks, but in this heat it was quite enough. We set off from the Marina after a quick pump out and headed up the canal towards Stoke-On-Trent. After passing through Stone (which is lovely and well worth a visit) we carried on through some more locks until we arrived hot, bothered and completely knackered at Barlestone. The mooring here is lovely and green but the tow path is a bit like the M1 on a busy day! We are looking forward to getting on the Shropshire Union, which is a bit in the middle of nowhere.

Tomorrow we are going to tackle Stoke On Trent which we have been told is a bit of a dump and not pleasant – so we shall see. We have heard this all before so we will judge it as we find it!

Click on the links below to see our onward journey.

• Stoke on Trent
• Harecastle Tunnel

We have spent what feels like an eternity on the boat in the marina. But, if I am honest, I have very little to complain about. Especially when you hear some of the heart rendering stories of what other people have been through. Nonetheless, life has settled into a rather flat, and uninteresting series of minor events. Waking, eating, exercising, shopping and watching telly blend. Days merge into one another and bank holidays and weekends have lost all their sparkle to join the rather drab and congruent weekday relatives. You find you have to stop and think what day of the week it actually is. Ho hum.

Of course its easy to only focus on the negatives, but there are a lot of positives too. Wendy and I have had a lot of time together, in a small boat totally under each others feet, with few distractions. Hmm, ok, well the weather has been really sunny! We were lucky that just before lockdown we had got Martha, and she has been a real treat! She alone drags my sorry arse out of bed in the morning to walk her in all weathers so she can make herself comfortable. She is still very puppy-like and loves to play.

And let’s not forget the marina. It is a beautiful place to spend your time, surrounded by lovely and well kept grounds. There is plenty of room to walk the dog, and very few people on their boats – so it’s a very low risk place to stay. All in all, it’s been a real haven for us, and has kept our spirits up in the darker days.

There is nothing quite like a long walk in some beautiful countryside when the sun is shining and the sky is blue and peppered with small white friendly clouds. There is a wonderful place just up the road where you can really get away from it all (if not all the other people doing the same!). It has been a real tonic and let us pass the time with a moderately firm grip on sanity. We will miss this place when we set off – but not for long I suspect!! We so miss the journey and cannot wait to cast off and join the cut once more to adventures new. And hopefully the pubs will be open too….

We left the marina on the 6th April and drove over to Ron’s in Clacton to stay. Ron was really Ill, we suspect with covid-19. He was so Ill in fact, he was unable to make the funeral. We decided that we would have to stay and look after him as there was no way we were going to leave him to fend for himself. We stayed long enough that he had recovered and was doing ok, and we were not showing any symptoms.

We eventually got back to the boat on the boat on the 18th where it’s been very quiet since.