Chester Basin to Chester Zoo, then onto Ellesmere Port

Thursday 17^th July

Albert Dock

Albert Dock

Ferry Across the Mersey

The Liver Building

We are off to Liverpool today, so walked to the train station and bought our tickets.   We got a day rider for £4.60 each, bargain!  It was a 40 minute journey to Liverpool.   Walked to the shops and had a look around, then walked down to the docks which has been renovated in recent years and it is now a really nice area with shops, bars and restaurants.  Had a walk around.  There was two really lovely buildings, so we walked down to have a look, one was the Liver Building and the other was the Port of Liverpool Building.  We also saw where the narrow boats come in from the Leeds and Liverpool canal along past these buildings and into Albert dock, they used to have to go out on the Mersey, then back in, but this link has been built to avoid that, thank goodness as we will be doing this in 2 years time!  The tunnels you have to go in looked a bit low though, that should be fun! It was very hot and sunny so found a nice roof top bar overlooking the River Mersey and opposite those two buildings, so sat up there and watched the tankers go in and out of the docks and also saw the ferry across the Mersey.  We then walked back into the city and went to the Cavern Club where the Beatles started, there is a wall of fame outside and a beatle statue.  You can go in the Cavern Club so we went in and had a drink and listened to the live music for a while, it’s a great place and a visit is a must if you are ever in Liverpool.   Walked back to the station and got the train back.  Just chilled out for the rest of the evening, but we had a really good day in Liverpool.  

 

 

Friday 18th July

 

The sky was very black when we woke up and it wasn’t long before the rain started and a few claps of thunder.  It only lasted for about half an hour or so, then the sun came out, so we moved up to the water point and filled up with water, then started off up the canal, this is now new territory for us so quite exciting.  There was quite a lot of clumps of weeds in the canal so we had to weave around abit to avoid them.  This end of the canal is more rural than then rest of it, it is really lovely.  We moored up just before Bridge 134 as we wanted to go to Chester Zoo.   We walked up to the bridge and there was a sign post saying Zoo ½ a mile up the road, so off we went.  We got to the end of the road and the Zoo was there, but it wasn’t the main entrance, only for deliveries, so we had to walk down the road, turn right down another road and then along a bridle path which took us to the main entrance, it was probably about another mile or so!  The bridle path actually went all the way to Ellesmere Port, 5 miles away and when Kev saw that, he said we have just walked around in a huge circle, I bet if we walk on down the bridle path on the way back, it should lead us to the road which goes to the canal.  In the Zoo we went and walked around for the next four hours, it is very big and lots to see, it is a conservation Zoo, so the animals are in huge areas and have lots of room and with a lot of them there is glass fronts, so you can see the animals really clearly and close up.  It was a really good afternoon and we enjoyed it, but it was very hot and humid, wish it had been cooler.  We left the Zoo when it closed at 5pm and walked down the bridle path as Kev was sure it was going the right way and sure enough within 10 minutes or so, we could see the canal and our boat over the hedge and the bridle path came out just before the bridge, that was great as I had had enough of walking by then ! So, if we ever moor here to go to the Zoo again, we will go up the bridle path to it and not the road.

We had been crossing paths with a boat called Diligent 2 and they were coming back down the canal. They moored up behind us and we all had a cup of tea together and a good old chat, that was nice as we hadn’t had a chance to really meet before then.  It’s Pat and Patrick and Poochie the dog.

It is a lovely rural spot where we are moored, but we are chugging off tomorrow, may come back here for Sunday night.

Moored at Bridge 134 (Chester Zoo)

 Saturday 19th July

The Boat Museum

Historic Boats

It was pouring with rain when we got up this morning and very black, but by 10am it had cleared away and had stopped, so we chugged off up the canal.  The canal is wide, we were abit surprised as we had the impression from other people it was narrow and shallow in places.  The only thing was, there were great big clumps of weeds all up the canal, so we had to weave our way up to Ellesmere Port.  At Bridge 141 you can moor to go to Cheshire Oaks Outlet Village, we are going to stop there on the way back tomorrow.  We went past lots of moored boats and then we were at the end of the canal at Ellesmere Port, we had made it at last and guess what, it started raining!  We turned around and then moored up.  We chilled out for a bit, then went over to the The National Boat Museum.  It is really good and we spent a couple of hours or so looking around.  The museum is established in the old Ellesmere Port basins along side the Manchester Ship Canal and there are historic boats and exhibitions about how people built the canals and also the people that worked on them carrying goods from one place to the other, it is very interesting and well worth a visit.

We walked back to the boat, then decided to go and find the Aldi that we think is close by and it was less than a mile, so that was good, we got a few things and headed back.  The sun came out for a while, but then it went overcast, but no more rain at the moment, thank goodness.  We are staying here tonight, then heading back down the canal tomorrow.

Moored at Ellesmere Port