Holiday Diary

Wednesday's journey was shorter than intended but we needed to stock up with provisions so our final mooring was at Whitchurch where there is a decent sized supermarket. It was another beautiful sunny day and after leaving Wrenbury we went through the first of the windlass operated lift bridges that are common along this canal. The locks were few and far between for most part until we reached Grindley. First there are three locks close together and then a staircase of three locks where the top gates of the locks are also the bottom gates of the next lock. Going up this means that the bottom lock must be empty and the other two full so that you can use the water to raise you up each level. There is a paid lock keeper on hand to assist (these are as few and far between as the locks). We stopped to top up the water and then continued a short way to Whitchurch. It was about a mile walk into town do do some shopping and we popped into the Cock & Greyhound for a swift pint on the way back. The walk to town is quite pleasant as you can walk up the Whitchurch arm of the canal until it comes to a dead end after being abandoned in the 1940's and subsequently filled in and then most of the rest of the way through a nature walk. The countryside is getting prettier with every mile and Thursday we will be heading ever nearer to Trevor and the famous acqueduct. A little behind schedule (not that it matters as we have a couple of spare days) we should be there by Friday.

Mile after mile of countryside uninterrupted by civilisation

Who knew there were so many fields in Cheshire?

Arriving at the bottom of the Grindley Locks

A tricky entrance under a bridge and straight into the lock

Never touched the sides

The three locks are close enough to walk between 

Two down one to go before the staircase

You've done that before

Now it gets interesting, this is the first lock in the staircase of three, the top gates are also the bottom gates of the next lock which must be full as well as the top lock 

A CRT volunteer helps work one side of the locks

Straight out of one into the next

In a short space the six locks have raised the level of the canal nearly 40 feet

We managed to squeeze onto the last designated mooring at Whitchurch, looking back you can see the Whitchurch Arm on the right, too tight to turn into heading south, you would have to carry further on and turn around to journey up this short diverson