Broken Cross Monday 17 April 2017

Another great meal in The Big Lock, I think this is some of the best pub food I have come across.

This morning we pushed off just after 10am. Big Lock was with us, but when we were half way down another boat arrived behind us, had they been a few minutes earlier I would have turned the lock so the could share.

It drizzled most of the morning, we were travelling quite slowly as it wasn't far to our marina and I wanted time to top the batteries up before leaving the boat. As we passed under the old railway bridge 180A we commented how rotten it looked and that we had never seen a train on the line, we had only gone a couple of hundred yards when we heard a two tone horn and a goods train with 30 wagons appeared.The reason for the horn was not to say hello to me, but the chap in the photograph was walking along the rails, after the rain had gone he continued using the track as a footpath.

Even travelling at a slow pace we reached our marina in two hours so continued on towards Wincham Wharf. Passing through the Tata Chemical works the cauldrons where steaming steadily.

It looks as if they are going to remove a lot of the cast iron pipes between the canal and the road as some have yellow sprayed along them and others have LIVE painted in red on them, it also looks as if they have replaced a lot of the cladding on the building adjacent to the road.

The winding hole is several hundred yards past the wharf and just before we got there we passed a both that wasn't displaying the best practice in mooring but running his mooring rope across the towpath.

On our return there was a mother duck and ducklings on the tow path, well most where but there were two in the canal and I had to wait for a boat coming the other way, but no squashed ducklings I am pleased to say.

We had considered mooring outside The Old Broken Cross pub but as we are eating onboard this evening we carried on for a short way so we are shielded from the road junction and bridge by the houses.

Today's Journey

8¼ Miles 1 lock in 3½ hours