Onto the Shroppie

Saturday 8th September It was a lovely day again as we travelled through an increasingly industrial landscape. We had several locks to go through. At one I met a man who has his own property company and goes out for weekends on his little cruiser with his wife. He was interested that we live on our boat. He said he'd offered to buy a boat in France so he and his wife could cruise off down the Midi but she was happy to stay in Cheshire with her friends and grandchildren. We carried on past a huge industrial building with no windows and we wondered what it could be. As we approached it became apparent that it was a salt factory with big piles of salt outside.

As we came into Middlewich the road followed the canal and I had to keep Molly on the lead so she didn't go into the road, whilst navigating through the locks which was awkward. Middlewich seems a bit of a bleak place even on a sunny day but we stopped there to get some shopping in a little Spar. We went through the last lock on the Trent and Mersey and then turned left into the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union. It was like going into a different world with beautiful farmland and rural landscapes surrounding us. We moored up near the village of Church Minshull in lovely scenery. Dale sat outside in the sunshine and did some fishing and I had a little nap.