Thursday 4th June 2020
We have been around Venetian Marina now since 4th April, almost 9 weeks, and sat at Syke’s Hollow since 16th April, 50 days, only moving 3 times, twice into Nantwich for shopping and services, and once to the marina to empty the loo and fill with water.
In that time, we have seen the seasons change. When we first arrived the grass had not quite started growing, now Syke’s Hollow is a veritable wildflower meadow of buttercups, clover and vetches. The trees were bare except for their buds, we have seen them bloom, with leaves and blossom and now the young berries are showing on the Blackthorn bushes.
We have seen the spring flowers appear, and disappear, giving way to summer flowers and now the Flag Irises, Thistles, Dog Roses and Blackberry flowers have appeared.
The wildlife has been wonderful to be close to. The birds, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, squirrels and the rabbit that we saw many times early on. In the canal itself, we have seen the tiny fish fry and watched Mayflies hatch out of their Nymph Casings, many to rise a few feet, only to be plucked out of the air by awaiting birds. We have seen many young ducklings and goslings and witnessed their numbers decline due to predators on a daily basis.
But now is the day, we tentatively start to slowly move on. We do not know how wise this is, but we have maybe just become comfortable here. However, we are taking our time before reaching a town, Middlewich, and until then, will remain in the countryside.
It was raining in the morning, so we waited until almost 10am before setting off. After the last good few weeks of heat and sunshine, it was quite a cold day, especially considering we are now into June, and winter clothing was the order of the day, at least to start. We first winded and headed for Venetain Marina where we emptied the loo and transferred the rubbish to Gaia who were driving to the service point at Calveley.
The scene around the chandlery and lock was very busy. When we arrived there were three boats at the chandlery and three waiting with a further two jostling for position for the lock. Similarly, on the water point there was a steady procession of boats exiting the lock, all heading towards Barbridge.
Susan was good enough to take back the chimney flue collar although postage will have to be paid for its return. We also gave Susan and BJ M&S vouchers for their kindness and support during our time at Syke’s. They have undoubtedly made our lock-down restriction experience much easier.
When then went up Cholmondeston Lock and sat on the water point to do three loads of washing before winding and dropping back down the lock.
It was then a case of following Gaia and, just one mile beyond Syke’s, we moored just before Minshull Lock. The boats from Venetian Marina had decided not to come down to Syke’s on account of the weather, but we were nonetheless, surprised to find Syke’s still empty, we thought boats would have converged on the place.
An Empty Syke’s Hollow
Once moored, we cleared the grass by the side of the towpath and sat with coffee, dodging the rain.
Day Total: 2 locks; 3 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; Day’s running hours 3.7 plus 14.8 hours running at Syke’s Hollow for hot water etc
Overall Total: 912 locks; 1633 miles; 53 tunnels; 61 Swing Bridges; 17 Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; total engine running hours 1120.1
Comments
Post a Comment