Nantwich to Coole Pilate Leisure Area - Shropshire Union Canal

 

Monday 28^th September to Thursday 1^st October

We had a few days at Nantwich.  Sunday evening we had pizzas from the pizza boat and they were delicious, we would definitely recommend them and hopefully our paths will cross again so we can have another one.

Monday morning Jane and Malcolm came to pickup Harry and we all went to Calveley Mill Café and Shop for breakfast and also to buy the lovely Calveley Crunch cheese they sell in their shop.  We really enjoyed having Harry to stay and will miss him now he’s gone back home.

Tuesday was a glorious sunny day so we walked into town and had lunch sat outside Nantwich Bookshop & Café which we call The Library! We had toasted sandwiches and coffee and it was as good as always.  Wednesday was a very wet damp day so we were confined to barracks.  In the evening Jane and Malcolm picked us up and we went to a lovely Italian restaurant in nearby Whitchurch called Etizos and we weren’t disappointed the food was amazing and we had a really lovely evening.

Thursday – It was time to move on and we were glad to see it was a dry sunny morning.  We left our mooring and stopped at the services to get water, etc. When all that was done we headed on along the canal to turn around in the winding hole which was about a mile and a half away.

 

We turned around okay and headed back down the canal to Nantwich.

We went past Nantwich Canal Basin, under a bridge and on along past the moorings, we then went over the aqueduct and on a bit further then stopped in the moorings.  Not far from these moorings is a McColls shop so we walked down to there to get some rolls and a few other bits.  We walked back to the boat then had our lunch.  We felt like right old duffers stopping for lunch as that is what the majority of them seem to do, usually once we stop we stay put but not today.

After lunch we set off again along the canal, it was a nice sunny afternoon just right for a chug.  We traveled a couple of miles then were approaching Hack Green locks.

  

There are two locks here and a boat had just come out so that meant the lock would be set for us.

There is a problem at this lock in that the bottom gate is leaking really badly so it is hard to get it filled up to open the top gate so there is a Canal &River Trust guy at the lock to help and now they have a pulley on the gate to help open it.

  

I went up to the lock and opened the gates and Kev brought the boat in.I shut the gates and opened the paddles to fill the lock.

 

By the lock there is a little bit like building and underneath there was a sheep happily eating away and didn’t seem fazed by us at all. The CRT chap wasn’t sure where he had come from but had reported it so hopefully they would get him back to where he had come from where ever that was as he was a completely different colour from all the sheep in the nearby fields.

We got through the lock okay and went into the next one.  This one was full so I had to empty it first.

    

We were soon through there and on our way again.  We went on for about another mile and then came to Coole Pilate Leisure Area where we moored up.  There was only one other boat there so plenty of room.

Here there are benches and picnic tables so as it was such a glorious sunny warm afternoon we sat outside for a while until the sun started to go down and it got chilly.  While we were sat there a microlight  came over, quite low at first then climbed higher.

There was a beautiful bright full moon called the Harvest Moon last night and I managed to get a few pictures, it was lovely and when it came up over the horizon it was very orange and looked big.

We are staying here now for a few days as the weather forecast for the weekend isn’t great and we wouldn’t want to get wet moving the boat being fair weather boaters these days!