Cholmondeston Lock to Church Minshull (Middlewich Branch)

Monday 12^th and Tuesday 13^th August

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Coming into Cholmondeston Lock

Monday – We stayed put and did a few jobs then went for a walk.  It was z nice afternoon so we got an ice cream at the Chandlery and sat by the canal to eat it.  In the afternoon I made a cake and also a crumble with the apples and plums we had picked.

Tuesday – We are moving on today and although we had a rain shower early, it brightened up and sun came out. We moved down to the water point to fill up.

Coming to a railway bridge

Cholmondeston lock is just nearby and there were volunteers on today so they had the lock ready for us.  They helped me with the lock and we were soon through there and stopped at Venetian marina just below the lock to buy a gas bottle as one of ours had just run out and it was a good price £27.80.

Church Minshull Lock

We then chugged on along the canal past Hollow Sykes leisure area where are there picnic tables and bbqs, under a few bridges and then we came to Minshull lock.  A boat was just coming out so once they were out, in we went.  There was another boat waiting to come up so I had plenty of help.

Passing Aqueduct Marina

We went on our way, past Aqueduct marina where we will stop on the way back as they have a nice café and good chandlers.

Coming out of Church Minshull Lock

Nice Footbridge

We went under a couple more bridges and moored up between bridges 12 and 13.  We had a short sharp shower just before we got to the moorings but it soon passed over and the sun came back out, so we were able to moor up in the dry.

My Flatbread Lunch

This is a really nice spot to moor but there is a bit of a shelf so sometimes it is difficult to moor without keep scraping and banging on the shelf but today we got the angle right, got a couple of big fenders in and it was fine.  Kev was banging in the pins and his hands were wet and he started practising for the hammer throwing in the Olympics with the hammer flying into the canal and that was the end of that, no gold medal for him!  Guess what we will be buying when we get to the shops at Middlewich.

Homemade Creme Brulee

The Badger Pub

We decided to go to the Badger pub for lunch which is a short walk from Bridge 11, up the lane across a field then on up the track to the road and the pub is right there.

It is a very nice pub and we both had their home made flat breads, mine came with melting Somerset Brie, roasted sun blush tomatoes, pesto and rocket and Kev had Chicken and Chorizo with pesto, they came with skinny fries and coleslaw, they were really good.  We also had dessert and they were home made as well and lovely.  With our coffee we were given a piece of home made flapjack and we commented to the waitress how nice it was.  When we left, she gave us a piece each to take back with us, how kind was that.

Painted Lady Butterfly

We walked back to the boat by going down the road to Bridge 14 and walking back along the towpath.

We are staying here tonight and possibly tomorrow as the forecast is for rain and we don’t want to get wet! Then when the sun comes out again, we will go on a bit further.

Lovely spot to Moor

Moored at Church Minshull