Christleton to Chester Basin (Shropshire Union Canal)

 Tuesday 15^th July

Kings Charles Tower

Chester Race Course

Chester Castle

The Albion Pub

Chester City Walls

Hickory's Smokehouse

Chester Cathedral

We are moored in Christleton, but are going into Chester today, so instead of catching the bus we caught yesterday afternoon, we walked a further 400 yards up the road to the park and ride, the buses go every 15 minutes, 10 minutes in peak times.  The fare is £2.00 return, which is cheaper than the normal bus fare of £3.20.  You buy your ticket before you get on the bus at the ticket machine and there is also a change machine there.  It drops you off in the centre of Chester.  We decided to walk around the city walls, so went up on the walls and had a lovely walk past King Charles Tower, Chester Castle, the Race Course and a really old pub called The Albion.  We got off the walls there and went in and had a drink, then back on and got off again at the River Dee.  It’s lovely by the river, so we sat there for a bit then went and had lunch in Hickory’s Smokehouse, its an American smokehouse where they do the most delicious ribs, pulled pork and burgers.  Had a really lovely meal, and the portions are substantial, we  then waddled outside and sat on a bench by the river and had Cheshire Farm Ice-cream just to ensure we were really stuffed!!.  We then waddled on back up on the walls, past the Cathedral, the Roman Gardens and the Ampitheatre and back to where we started.  It is a great thing to do and if you are ever in Chester, you should definitely walk the city walls.  We caught the park and ride bus back to Christleton and walked back to the boat.  Just chilled out in the evening after all that food.

Wednesday 16 July 2014

We are heading into Chester today, so chugged off nice and early, stopped for water just after Bridge 122.  As we were pulling out, a boat came through the bridge which was good as the locks are double locks, so that means we can share and I get help with the lock.  We both chugged to the lock and Kev went in, me and the lady from the other boat did the lock, out they went and onto the next one.  There was three people on the other boat, so someone had gone ahead to set the next lock so by the time we got there, it was ready.  There are five locks down into Chester and we went through them pretty quickly and smoothly with the help.  There is an Aldi at the third lock (Tarvin Lock), we didn’t stop, but may well do on the way back, but good for future reference.

 

Sharing the locks down into Chester

Cruising into Chester

Lock 5 into Chester

 

Cruising under the City Walls

In the top of the staircase

In the middle of the staircase

In the bottom of the staircase

Moored in Chester Basin

The boat we were sharing with were turning round in the winding hole and mooring up, so we said goodbye and headed to the staircase lock which takes you down into the basin.  It is three locks and they are 11ft deep each and double locks, so weren’t really looking forward to doing them.  We got to the top of the staircase and there was a boat in the middle lock.  The top lock was full, so Kev went in and then the top lock was emptied into the middle lock.  I went down and emptied the bottom lock, then came back up as Kev was coming into the middle lock.  I then emptied the middle lock into the bottom lock.  There is only one ground paddle on the middle lock so it empties very slowly and it is really stiff, I couldn’t get it going, but a nice young chap was walking past and asked if I needed a hand, even he found it tough at first, he asked me if we were doing it right way, I assured him we were and to keep going and he got it going and opened it fully, that was kind of him, I think he took pity on an old woman!!  Then two other chaps came by and one asked me if I needed help opening the gate, so I said yes please and he helped me open the gate, then I said you couldn’t help close it as well, could you, so he did, that was lucky as they are really heavy gates.  There was two boats coming up, so I had help doing the last lock as well, don’t know what all the fuss about this staircase is all about, it was a piece of cake for me!!!  We went into the basin and moored up.  The sky went black and it rained for a bit.  We needed to do some shopping, so Kev found an Aldi on Google Maps which was less than a mile away, so we set off to find it and sure enough, it was not far away.  We did our shopping, then headed back to the boat.  It rained for abit, then cleared up.  We walked up the canal to the bridge and across to find a shop to buy a mobile top up.  There was a street with several shops, we then walked back via the canal  It was a lovely sunny evening and we just chilled out.