30 June

We were up at 5:30AM and after packing up and checking out enquired when the hopper bus to Terminal 3 was due. Contrary to advice given the previous night we discovered that there was no bus to Terminal 3 so we elected to take a taxi to Terminal 3. It was easier, and probably cheaper, than taking a bus and Underground train. It certainly was quicker. Checking into Virgin Atlantic was pretty painless. We paid for an extra bag. By the time that the checkins had closed, 8:15AM, we were sitting having breakfast. Jim had earlier tried to pay for the extra bag online but this was impossible as we had not bought our tickets direct from Virgin Atlantic.

After Security we wandered around the duty free shops. Dixons is an electronic store and Jim saw a replacement power supply there. Before buying it, he tried his MacBook on the shops demo system. The PC would not charge off the shop power supply so that proved the PC itself was at fault, a totally different problem. The fault should be relatively minor, being between the power supply connector and the battery, as the PC works fine, but the battery is getting low in power reserve.

Virgin Atlantic really surprised us. At the gate, as soon as we had had our identities and tickets checked, we could enter the plane.  This made loading much smoother than hanging around and loading by rows.  Why don't other airlines do this?

We travelled on a Boeing 787-9, two engined plane. It's probably similar to the Air NZ Dreamliners. However inside in cattle class, there are only nine seats across the plane and each seat is wider than the Air NZ seats. The spacing between rows of seats is more too, so that Jim's long legs had at least an extra inch over the Air NZ configuration. The service on the plane was very good also and Virgin Atlantic would be our preference from the USA into Europe. We were surprised at how quickly we were able to disembark from the plane.

Getting through the US Immigration and Customs were much faster than we have experienced in the past and we were out of there within 45 minutes. However we overheard two women having problems with their forms as Border Control required them to put the street number of where they would be staying on the form so they were directed to the internet to obtain the necessary information. Thankfully before we left NZ Lynette required Lynnely's full address for her ETSA visa so quick emails revealed the information. We would have trouble if we had got to Border Control and did not have the full address. Lynnely was waiting at the exit for us and it was great to see her again.

We managed to get everything into her brother's Prius (we wouldn't fit into her sports car) and she drove us to her condo in Burbank. The scenery was so different to the UK. We were travelling in the beginning of the rush hour for 25 million people so the eight lanes on our side of the freeway were running slow and all drivers just accept the delays. The roads and freeways are always busy and they are constantly planning and constructing new roads and freeways. Los Angeles is in the middle of it worst drought and the hills are so dry.

After some chatting, we had dinner and were reintroduced to the US sized meals. Luckily we ordered small meals. Jim was flagging and crashed at 8PM, 3AM London time.

29 June

The squirrels woke Jim with their barking and then he heard the coughing bark of a fox. That's how quiet and rural the spot we moored in was, even though it was less than a mile from the marina.

We rolled into the marina at about 8:30AM and unloaded our gear. After we had finalised our account and got some money back from our fuel deposit, we left our bags there and wandered over to the Anderton Lift lock. This is a vertical lift mechanism, based on hydraulics, that can lift two vessels up by lowering two vessels at the same time. The hydraulics get things to half way and electric motors take over and do the rest. Luckily there were a couple of boats waiting to go into the lift so that we could see the lift in action as it moved vessels from the River Weaver up about 100 feed and allowed them to sail into the Trent and Mersey Canal. It was very impressive. A couple of the boats were a butty and motor that were rafted together, just as they would have been 100 years ago.

We walked back to the marina and a taxi took us to Crewe train station. It was cheaper and faster than a combination of taxis and trains. The train to London picked us up after a ten minutes wait and it took another two and a half hours to reach Euston station. Rather than hauling our three bags up and down escalators, we used the lifts and that worked well. We bought tickets on the underground and got instructions how to get tho Heathrow Terminal 4.

Getting there was pretty painless and we were drinking strawberry milkshakes in the Terminal just after 4PM. We then went to the Hilton only to find that there are five Hiltons at Heathrow and we were booked into the one near Terminal 5 not 4. It is not nearly as good as the one at Terminal 4. We finally were in our room by 6:30PM.

The restaurant was very Mud Brickish (an expensive Waiheke restaurant). They served small portions on large plates and charged lots for the meal. It just showed what great value the pub meals are. After dinner, Lynette went for a walk and spotted squirrels and rabbits in the middle of suburbia.

The charger for the MacBook is totally dead, so no further blogs until we get to the USA.

The Anderton Lift between the River Weaver (at the bottom) and the Trent and Mersey canal above.  You can see the two steel tubs that each hold two narrowboats and water.  The left one, with one boat, has just started to rise and the right one is moving down.

Both tubs are level

The pair of boats on the right have made it down to the River Weaver

The pair sailing out of the lock.  See the lock gate has been lifted up, above the boats, so that they can sail out.

The pair of narrowboats.  The one nearest the camera is unpowered.  It's steered to help in tight spots, but the tiller is unshipped at present.  The long tiller arm is lying on the cabin roof and is painted in four colours.

Other boats on the River Weaver.

A Grey squirrel posing for Lynette.  These are an imported menace in the UK and are more numerous than the native Red Squirrel.

You wouldn't believe such a peaceful scene could be so close to Heathrow Airport, with planes flying over as below. 

28 June

When we woke it was raining and blowing, but the news was promising that the weather would clear by mid morning. It looks like the weather people here are just as optimistic and inaccurate as in NZ.

We toddled off and around the first bend we came across a coarse fisherman. These guys fish for coarse fish like Chub, Carp, Tench, Pike etc, not refined fish like Salmon and Trout. Most of the time the throw the fish back. You really wouldn't want to eat anything caught in the canal anyway.

They were lined up along the canal, about every 50 yards for more than a mile. Each had a 30' pole stretching across the river and they pulled the poles back as the boat approached. The cheapo's just pushed the pole into the hedge behind, but the flash guys all had rests on tripods amongst their mountain of gear. Many had trolleys to carry their stuff around and nobody had a tent as we saw yesterday.

Few had caught fish but most were still hoping. We did see a couple of fish caught, two were under three inches and one must have exceeded a whole six inches. Again, we are so lucky in NZ with our sea fish and freshwater fishing options. These guys probably have to spend a lot more in equipment though.

We fed the ducks a few slices of bread that we won't be able to eat. Here ducks come in two categories, the complacent mob and the Jesus flock. We found the complacent mob in Middlewich. They were sitting on the lawns and gardens of the houses by the canal. If we threw bread near them, they sort of looked at it and scratched, then gave it a miss. Obviously it wasn't up to the standard of the stuff that they were normally fed.

We first came across the Jesus ducks in Chester. If you threw out bread, these ducks raced in so fast that it looked like they were walking on water. One has to wonder if the ducks in Middlewich are Muslim. It's currently Ramadan and they can't eat between dawn and dusk.

We stopped about two miles from the hire marina for a final clean up and packing. It was just raining when we stopped. The temperature hasn't really made it above 15C all day. Thank goodness for the boat's central heating. The sun did come out later but it wasn't too hot.

We tidied up the boat in readiness to return it tomorrow, and packed our bags. We are paying for an extra bag. We'll need to rebalance them tomorrow.

We took a few photos of the interior and then found that the TV was not working.

A coarse fisherman with all his gear.  Note the rest for his rod.  The net is to keep his catch in and he empties it back in the canal before he leaves.

The fishermen are lined up along the canal.  You have to travel slowly in  the boat and they pull their rods out of the way.

The old salt works and chemical factory has been bought by Tata of India. 

An old wooden day boat that probably dates from the 1930's.  It's under repair.

Here's an original 1930's work boat.  It would have carried some cargo as well have pushed another unpowered canalboat along. 

An old salt works building.  The ground has subsided so much, because they have extracted the salt, that the building has sunk.  The top of the arch on the lower right of the building would have been at least eight feet above the ground when originally built.  

Lynette has the knack of capturing great canal reflections.

The galley of the Reed Bunting, showing the facilities and steps to the cockpit in the stern. 

The middle berth was directly adjacent to the galley.  It was the most comfortable bed to sleep on.

A little passage past the bathroom linked the middle berth to the front berth.  There were doors on either end for privacy. 

The bathroom was cosy.  The toilet would have been a struggle for larger people.
The towel rail below was heated by the central heating. 

The shower.  The shub, below, had a high entry so must have been a struggle for the girls as Jim could just get in and out OK.

The front double berth.  There was a drop down single berth above the double bed which gave the fifth bed.
The double doors opened for access to the seats and bow.

The emergency anchor, seats and bow section.  Gas bottles were in the bow.  The hose was for filling the bow water tank and the items under the right seat were for securing the boat at night to the bank, (pins and hammers etc.)
We bought a couple of fishing nets for hauling rubbish out of the canal and filled a few plastic bags with the garbage.

27 June

27 June

It wasn't too bad at 7AM when we woke. We didn't really need the central heating.

We had a pretty simple day planned, travel the canal from Barbridge to Middlewich and turn left back to the Anderton marina. If you look at the route guides, it says you could be forgiven for thinking this is a windswept and boring piece of canal. We didn't find that much to see.

There's lots of bridges where you need to slow down to get through the narrower gap and plenty of moored boats along the way where you must slow down. There's only three locks but there were queues at the last two. In fact we had to wait over an hour to get through the last lock on that stretch, The ten mile trip took just over four hours.

The weather was very fickle. It would shoot up to 20+C when the sun was out, then suddenly drop to 14C when the cloud blocked the sun out. It was Coats On, coats off, all morning. By midday, the clouds had disappeared and the temperature went to about 23C.

In the afternoon we turned north towards Anderton. There were boats in all directions so it was challenging working though them. There was no place to stop so we had to go through the first three locks, then we stopped. Lynette certainly needed a break as the locks were very demanding and called on all her strength to open the downhill paddles and gates.

There was a volunteer who wandered between the locks assisting people so that the boats moved through them as fast as possible. We were held up by a Danish family who had just taken control of a boat and the boat yard was showing the wife how the locks worked. Very hard for somebody to hire a boat in that stretch of the canal with all the close locks and a very busy stretch of the canal.

Jim took on water and Lynette wandered back to the turnoff to Barbridge, where she spotted a canal craft shop. Lynette spoke to one of the canal workers and was told that if we had been 1hr earlier we would have found 20 boats queued up in both directions waiting to go through the 5 locks around Middlewich.

In the shop Lynette spoke to the saleslady and commented about the number of moored boats and the slowness of the travel past them. She said that there are more and more boats moored up each year. The weekend before there was a festival in Middlewich so it would have been chaos and we are rather thankful that we didn't manage to get there.

Going along the flies were a bit of a pain. They were about three quarters of an inch long and bit you as we were standing on the rear deck. It was a change on the previous three days where we had a few annoying little flies about half that size. They were very elusive and were fast to move, especially when there was a newspaper heading their way. They didn't bite but like to land on you and walk around.

The last lock was a wide lock and we shared it with a guy in a 25' canal boat. He had been made redundant and used the money to buy his little boat. It's ideal for just one person. Further along the canal we stopped and waved him to slow down and then handed him on a boat hook some of the excess stuff that we have and that we can't use. The moored boat ahead said it was entertaining. Luckily the transfer went smoothly.

That last lock was called Big Lock and was right outside the Big Lock pub which was crowded with people, many of them sitting outside drinking and ready to comment on the persons operating the locks so Lynette did not want to make any mistakes. Also you could not walk across the back of the gates but had to walked further up to cross on a bridge which meant operating the lock took longer and could provide entertainment for those at the pub. The downward paddles were particularly still and Lynette had to use all her strength to wind them up to be able to open the gates when the lock had emptied of water.

At the Wardle Lock Lynette found that the boat in front of us did not have an engine and that an older man and a guy about 19 were planning on walking the boat down through all the locks and along the canal to Northwich, a distance of about 5 miles. The young guy got up on the boat's roof and moved it through the lower lock gate using his feed. She told him he needed a horse. Two miles further on we came across them again on the other side of the canal where they were mooring up. It appeared that another boat must have met them and managed to tow them to a suitable area, probably because the canal was just too busy to handle a boat being walked along the canal

We finally got to Broken Cross, a small hamlet/village at about 5:30 and turned the engine off.

We had an excellent meal at the Old Broken Cross pub. Before we entered, Jim saw a Range Rover with a sign RAYNET on it. It sort of rang a bell. During the meal he felt sure it had something to do with amateur radio. We also noticed kayakers paddling down the canal.

After the meal, Jim wandered across to the guy and introduced himself. RAYNET is the UK amateur radio emergency group and they were doing a practice exercise by monitoring the kayakers who are doing a 100 mile course over 24 hours and are paddling through the night. The operator was Peter G8HAV and initially he thought Jim was the relief operator who was going to work with him through the night.

Lynette opening the paddle on a lock 

These guys must have been fishing all night as they were still sleeping at 10 AM

Another group with all their fishing gear

You can see how much the corner has worn from the rope of the horse dragging a canal boat.  

This was a stables for the horses that dragged the canal boats.  Now sold off. 

An old lock keeper's cottage.  Again sold off. 

In the queue waiting for a lock.  About 45 minutes wait from here. 

A manicured garden by the canal 

In the canal shop, a ladybird house and a bird box. 

When you open the paddles, the water rushes into the lock 

A model of a canal boat carrying salt being used as a seat. 

Wood and folk art.  The wood would will be for the stove 

A little 25' canal boat.   

This looks like bamboo growing in the canal.  It will be a problem in future 

More folk art, greenery and a satellite dish 

Doves or white pigeons?

26 June

It was very quiet overnight but we were surprised to find that it was 9.50pm when the last boat passed us. We understood that 6pm was the curfew time for boats travelling on the canals. We were out in the country that probably made a difference. We are often gently woken by ducks pecking at the outside of the boat. We had a leisurely start and pottered along. It was overcast most of the day, with the odd few minutes of sun, a sprinkle of rain and a light shower. The temperature hovered around 17C.

We had four wide locks and a wide flight of two locks fairly close together to operate. The first lock was an “iron” lock, which meant that it was made with sheets of heavy iron. The problem is that over the years it has been beaten around by boats bashing into it and is not as strong as it was originally. Today, you are allowed only one boat in the lock instead of two. After that lock, we teamed up with JT1, a 58' boat and went through all the other locks together including the Banbury set of two locks with three sets of gates and the lock operators (the two females in this case) had to work on the bottom lock and then race up to the top one, open up the paddles to start it filling and then race down to the bottom lock ready to fight the gates open when it had emptied and the two boats could enter. It made life easier for all of us and saved time and water because we didn't have to empty a lock for a boat.

The people on the JT1 had it built to their design and have been living on it for a year and are planning to spend about three or four years going around the UK and then go onto the continent. They reckon they will either ship it on the back of a transporter to Europe or buy a bigger canal boat over there. Apparently the standard size of a canal boat on the Continent is 16' wide and 100' and are mainly recycled holiday and hotel boats. That's just over five times the space that we have on the little Reed Bunting and over 25 times the space we had in our camper van.

It was a pleasant enough ride as we are slightly ahead of schedule so we stopped for lunch and relaxed for about an hour or so. While having lunch we were pleased to see two people cutting the grass on the towpath with a weed eater and a ride on mower. We turned off the canal to Chester and headed to Middlewich. There's lots and lots of moored boats so progress is very slow. We stopped just before the first lock at 4.40pm and wandered over to the shop at the Venetian Marina to pickup a couple of ice creams and some other goodies. While we were eating the ice cream, the heavy squall hit, but luckily there was an umbrella to shelter under until the rain stopped.

The internet was like dial up.  Could only load a few photos out of the dozen we had chosen.

A swan family out for the day 

Lynette opening a lock gate 

There aren't many thatched houses in Cheshire 

You need Weetbix to help opening lock gates

This lock is over 15' deep

The heron was guarding the lock.

There were very few mile posts on the canal to Chester 

The little building on the left is the Train Station, but the train doesn't stop there any more.