We woke to fine drizzle after a very quiet night. Last night we returned to Meze restaurant for another meal and they were almost a busy as the Tuesday night. I recommend it.
We were in no rush to get away so we had a wander around Chester Cathedral, we would have taken a trip up the tower but they didn’t take place until this afternoon. At the moment they are building a scale model of the Cathedral using Lego bricks, they still have a long way to go but the floors are laid and the walls nearly all started. There is a lot more information on their web site HERE It will take about 350,000 bricks to complete it. We then had a wander round town only to find they were erecting barriers all over the place, large screen TVs and a stage of some description, a bit of Googling told me that it was the world rally championship of Wales was ending there tonight.
We finally left in the sunshine after lunch, the first stage of our journey was quite slow as we could see the restaurant boat The L’eau-t Cuisine ahead of us, they were in turn waiting for a Narrowboat to come down Hoole Lane Lock before they could go up, once they were clear of the lock we could empty it and go up ourselves, so what normally takes 10 minutes took us about half an hour.
The L’eau-t Cuisine is an unusual craft in that she has a pointed bow and stern, also a rudder at each end and a propeller at each end, so she has no need to turn round, this is very useful as she starts her cruise at the Mill Hotel, travels north to the top of the Northgate Locks then south as far as the bottom of Chemistry Lock before going north again to the Mill Hotel.
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|  Bow rudder |  The stern |
The Bowslooking back towards the town from Hoole Lane Lock to the right of the canal is the old shot tower, it was hear that molten lead was pored through a frame at the top and by the time the lead reached the bottom it was all in uniform spheres to be loaded into shotgun cartridges. It was still in use in 2001 and in its early days produced musket shot for the Napoleonic wars.The factory around the tower is now being ripped apart with all the roofs removed and it is planned to become a housing development, however the tower will remain as it is grade II listed.
Apart from the restaurant boat and the boat that came down the lock we didn’t see anyone else on the move, we slipped passed the mile and a half of moored boats without upsetting anyone but I did smile when I saw this at the bottom of a garden, it was the same bungalow that had the cricket match on the lawn.
We stopped for the night on the 48hr moorings outside Tattenhall Marina, we are not sure if this was a good move because there is an agricultural unit opposite and we keep hearing big bumps like you get from a shed full of animals but we haven’t actually heard any animal noises.
Today’s Journey 
7¼ miles, 5 locks in 4 hours
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