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Cruise 10 - Ellesmere Port to Nantwich - £575pp

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23rd- 27th June 2022 (4 nights)
From:       Ellesmere Port (Chester Canal)
To:            Nantwich (Shropshire Union   
                 Canal)
​ 
 
HIGHLIGHTS:  Nantwich,
                         Hurleston Junction,
                         Bunbury Staircase,
                         Beeston Castle,
                         Chester,
                         Ellesmere Port Boat       
                         Museum.

Depending on how hospitable we've found Ellesmere Port, we may have been loitering around for a couple of days since our previous guests left.  IF it's not been as friendly as we'd hoped, we'll have gone back to Chester to stock up and will return to collect our new travelling companions around 13.30 hrs somewhere (exact location to be notified on the day).

After an introductory blah blah (and probably glass of something fizzy, we'll pull ropes and begin our southerly sojourn.   This area of the Wirral hasn’t got the best  reputation but we prefer to make our own minds up.  Perhaps mooring  at Stoak or Stanney Mill for the evening.  The M53 Motorway is never far away along here so it may not be the quietest of moorings.

Next morning after a (hopefully) peaceful night and breakfast of some sort or other, we'll chug off and stop for lunch in Chester – if our guests would like to explore, we can linger for a few hours before we leave and continue our route... perhaps mooring around Beeston Castle to allow for a wander up there the following morning.

 

Once underway again, We'll Chester for a while, we can linger until after lunch and then chug off to continue our route  - Ahead of us is Beeston Iron lock – it’s an oddity on the canal network… a WIDE lock, lined with (unsurprisingly given it’s name) an iron trough… the danger to it being, “sticky out bits” that can quite easily tip a boat.  DON’T worry though… we’ll have all eyes and ears engaged as we navigate our way through it . Depending on time scales we'll stop for lunch before/after the lock and then make our way to Bunbury to ascend the Staircase locks.  

It's generally a fun pace to be as there's a hire base at the bottom and more often than not, poor hirers face a baptism of fire... their first experience of a lock being a staircase.  We'll help out if required and once through there find a nice spot to tie up for the day.

Our final day will take us to the Services at Calverley where we'll probably make se of the Elsan point (for the crews overnight loo), top up the water tank and deposit rubbish in the CRT  refuse area.

Once we've finished at the services, we'll chug onwards - passing first the "Middlewich branch" of the Shroppie at Barbridge (possibly stopping for a pub lunch if the group is in agreement) and then Hurleston Junction (Llangollen canal) 

The  remaining trip into Nantwich isn't too long and mid afternoon we'll tie up wherever we can.  The walk into the town is a bit of a schlepp (about a mile) but it's nice enough and Nantwich is certainly worth exploring.

We'll bid our guests farewell shortly after breakfast the following morning and then prep the boat ready for our next trip up the Llangollen Canal to the Pontycysyllte Aqueduct, in a few days time.

Total distance is 27 miles and 14 locks . There are 4 small aqueducts or underbridges

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