We overslept so got up hurriedly as we had a bit of a way to go. I popped out to get the canopy down while John was getting his cereal and a boat came up the lock and moored at our rear. The lady was very friendly and said that they'd been going since 7.15 and after 10 locks they wanted to stop before the rain. Trying not to look as if I'd only got up 10 minutes earlier I asked what the forecast was, and apparently rain was on the way for the next couple of hours. At that I felt the first spots so put the sides back on the canopy and went down to tell John. We checked several forecasts and the majority of them didn't mention rain. After 30 minutes it was dry so we thought we'd might as well get going. Once more the sides came off the canopy and we got ready to go.
The third lock we went down was next to the M6 and I felt so grateful to be moving slowly along the canals rather than speeding along the motorway. Shortly after this it started to drizzle.
The lady at the lock had warned us that the water was quite low in some of the pounds, one in particular, this seemed strange since there was no shortage of water starting to come from the heavens.
We came to the pound with a definite shortage of water, typically there was a boat coming up so rather than being able to stay in the centre of the pound, we had to move across to let each other by, and I was scraping along the bottom at one point, but luckily didn't get stuck. When I got to the lock this was the view back. It doesn't look too bad in this picture but that 8"-10" makes a lot of difference to the boat. By now it was getting heavier. Unfortunately we were both in 'longs' and sandals but had anoraks on. We got wet....very wet. There was no choice really, we just had to keep going.
We needed to stop at Wheelock for some water and just as we arrived the rain stopped and so once we'd filled up we took turns to go below and dry off and change. Luckily it stayed dry until more or less arriving at Middlewich where the drizzle started again.
I can remember saying a day or so ago about spurts of water that you sometimes get in locks, if there are holes in the brickwork that water can get into. Here was a lovely example. One reason I never keep my hatch open when we're travelling, no matter how hot it is.
The final lock going down to Middlewich. I've just worked out that in the last two days we've come down 262' 1" in 16 miles and 30 locks. Impressive engineering isn't it? A mixture of Brindley and Telford, raise your glasses folks to two amazing men.
We got the canopy up just before the rains came again but now at 8.00pm the sun is shining and we're off for a walk to see the junction and the first section of the canal we'll be turning onto tomorrow. New territory for us, always fun.
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