Chester Basin to Christleton, then Christleton to Iron Lock, Beeston

 Tuesday 22^nd July

Another sunny day, very hot.   When we were mooring up yesterday, Kev was banging the pins in the ground to tie our boat up to and the head of the lump hammer snapped off and flew into the canal, didn’t know Kev was that strong!  Our friend Pat has a sea searcher magnet and he dangled it around in the canal for a bit and did find it and fished it out, but we can’t be without a lump hammer so will have to buy a new one until we can get a new handle and repair the old one.  We needed a few supplies, so we walked up to the Aldi about 10 to 15 minutes walk away, got what we needed, then back to the canal, then up to the shops to buy a lump hammer, which we did get, then back to the canal for a bit and chilled out.  We are off for our posh meal tonight which my work colleagues gave me when I left work back at the end of March, so got ready and walked to the Abode Hotel which overlooks the race course.  It is a really lovely hotel.  Michael Caines restaurant and Champagne Bar is on the 5^th floor, so we went up in the lift.  We had a drink on the terrace overlooking the race course, it is a great view from up there.  We went into the restaurant which is really nice and had a table by the window.  We thought we would go the whole hog and have the 7 course tasting menu (which includes a cheese course) with the matching wines and port with the cheese.  Well, the whole meal was fantastic and so was the service, when they brought out the food the explained what it was you were going to eat and when they brought the wine for each course, they told you all about it and why they had chosen it for that course, etc, everything about the whole evening was just wonderful, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  We also had coffee and petit fours to finish just to ensure we were fully stuffed!   We walked, well waddled back to the boat and flaked out in our chairs to rest our tummys!  But it was a superb evening and the food was just wonderful, a lovely experience and a brilliant gift from my work mates. 

Roast Brixham Scallop

Roast Quail

Roast Fleetwood Cod

Roast Chicken  Breast

Cheese

Exotic Fruit Salad

Raspberry Mousse

Menu

In top of Staircase

 Wednesday 23rd July

In Bottom of Staircase

 

In Middle of Staircase

Well, we are finally leaving Chester today, but it has been a great stay and we have thoroughly enjoyed Chester and this part of the canal and Ellesmere Port, but time to move on now.  We are going to travel with Patrick and Pat and Poochie on Diligent 2 for the next few days which will be nice as there are quite a few double locks and it will make life easier for all of us, so we set off up the staircase out of Chester Basin, got up there nice and steady and on up the next five locks, there was a hire boat in front of us and they didn’t really have a clue so Patrick went and helped them a few times to chivvy them up so we could get through as well.  The fender of the hire boat was hanging off and apparently they had been coming up the staircase lock yesterday and had been too near the gates and when they tried to open them, it got jammed in the gate.  They had to call the hire company out to fix it, glad we weren’t traveling with them!   

Going in Hoole Lane Lock

We went on up through the locks and moored at Chistleton just before the Cheshire Cat pub.  It was a lovely sunny evening so we all decided to have a BBQ, Patrick said he would walk to the Sainsburys to get a few things as it was only about ½ mile away, we thought it was quite a bit further than that, so we didn’t go!  Patrick was quite a long time and when he got back, it was actually more like 1½  miles away, we all laughed about it, I don’t think he will be walking there again!!  We had a lovely BBQ together and sat chatting until it was nearly dark.  We are on the move again tomorrow, but only two locks to do, so an easier day.

Thursday 24th July

We are on the move again today and another hot and sunny day.  Chugging with Pat and Patrick again today.  We set off down the canal towards Beeston.  Up through Wharton Lock and the Iron Lock at Beeston and moored at the top.  We are staying here overnight, going for breakfast in the nice cafe nearby in the morning, then onto Calveley.  Having a BBQ again tonight so that will be nice.