Monday 8^th June 2020

 

Not particularly being cat people anyway, we have never quite understood cats being kept on board a boat. They tend to be more independent than dogs and roam freely. Gaia have two cats on board, One-eyed Madge, who is more of a home bird and teases Harvey endlessly, and Nethy, the more independent of the two.

Nethy had not been seen since we arrived at this mooring spot on Thursday and they were becoming concerned for her as we had planned on moving today. Fortunately though, she turned up at 10pm last night, no worse for her expedition. It must be a constant worry for cat owners when they disappear for days. When would you give up and leave?

We left the mooring at 10am when we were all ready. It was a very short move of just less than a mile, passing through Minshull Lock, and stopping at the 48 hour moorings just beyond Aqueduct Marina. It did feel really good to move though and the moorings were much nicer than those above the lock, much more open with a wider towpath and picnic benches.

The lock was busy with no less than 3 boats waiting to lock up. Once moored, many boats passed throughout the day, with a further two boats stopping on the moorings. Albeit without the hire boats, the canal suddenly seems back to normal. We are planning to cruise the Llangollen Canal once we leave Middlewich again, the theory being that with the hire boats not yet being allowed out, the canal, usually very busy, will be quieter. However, most boats seem to be heading that way, all with the same thoughts.

We walked up to the site of the River Weaver Aqueduct and dropped down the bank to see it up close as Danny and Jemima had never seen it. They were duly impressed, how can anybody not be, and we were able to walk through the side tunnel to the opposite side.

 

  

We found a bird’s egg laying on one of the aqueduct buttresses. Small, but a lovely blue colour, it seemed to be a Dunnock’s egg and had a hole in it where it had been eaten. On the way back, we were amused by a young squirrel on the towpath, bunching up Yarrow flowers in its paw and eating them. We were able to get within 4 or 5 feet of it before it slowly disappeared in the undergrowth, none too bothered about us watching it.

Danny had been in considerable back pain for a few days and so, once back at the boats, he went for a lay down while Jemima, Brenda and myself sat at the picnic bench beside the boats. It was a lovely warm afternoon and we were entertained by yet another young squirrel feeding beside the towpath close to us and the many Swallows acrobatically skimming the surface of the water and seeming to pass within inches of our heads. 

 

Day Total: 1 lock; 1 mile; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 1.1

 

Overall Total: 913 locks; 1634 miles; 53 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 17 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 1121.2