Narrowboat Holiday Day 13 - Wheelock to Middlewich to Nantwich (11.5 hours; 15.2 miles; 15 locks)

We woke up, ate breakfast, and was underway by 8:40 AM.  We could have left earlier, but we don't want to be in Middlewich before noon, so it gave it a little more time this morning.  We have now been on the boat for 2 weeks and will return to Anderson Boats, in Middlewich where we started, to get a pump-out, refuel (diesel & propane), fill water, and drop off dirty towels/sheets.  

It is a beautiful morning.  Here is a view off the back of our boat and we just passed moored narrowboats.

A beautiful morning.

The nice countryside we are boating through.

Narrowboats passing

After 12 days, we have returned to Middlewich after completing the Cheshire Ring (97 miles & 92 locks), plus a spur to Whaley Bridge (5 miles), plus a failed spur to Etruria (10 miles & 2 locks).

Here we are passing the AirBnB we stayed at, right around the corner from a chippy.

We arrived back to Anderson Boats around 12:30 PM and received all the needed services.  We then turned around and stopped for lunch and to pick up a few groceries.  

We are pretty excited about our next week.  We are going to do the Llangollen Canal which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful canals in the UK.

We headed out of Middlewich...or at least tried to head out.  I guess I didn't mention that we had to come down the 3 Middlewich locks to get back to Anderson Boats.  We didn't have much issue getting down, but when we turned around, there was a bit of a traffic jam going back up.  

Here are the 2 boats that are in front of us trying to get up the 3 Middlewich locks.

Traffic trying to climb Middlewich locks.

Finally, after 40 minutes, we were able to enter Lock 1 of 3.

Entering bottom lock of Middlewich Locks.

We made it up those 3 locks and though we were set and finally on our way, but nope.  We still had one more lock to got through, Warble Lock.  To get to this lock, you had to make a 90 degree turn under a fairly tight tunnel.  You can see us past this tunnel in the below photo.  As we approached the turn, there was a rental boat trying to make the turn.  I think it literally took them 20 minutes to make the turn and get into the lock as we watch in amazement.  To make matters worse, there was another boat that got to the lock before us, so again we are third in line and have to wait.  It took us 45 minutes to finally enter Warble lock, and it is already almost 4 PM.  

Finally entering Warbly lock.

Inside Warbly Lock,

We had plans to make it to Barbridge Junction, but it doesn't seem like there is enough time to make it there before sunset.  Oh well.. at least the scenery us amazing.

A beautiful canal.

Wow. Swan nests are huge.

Motoring along.

More beauty.

Passing moored boats.

Waiting for the lock to fill.

It was getting late and it looked like we weren't going to make it to Barbridge Junction, so we changed our goal to make it through one more lock and stop just past it. 

Finally, at 7:45 PM, we made it through the last lock and was moored by 8PM.

The last lock of the day,

We were pretty tired once we tied up.  The good thing is that we ate dinner on the run.  I had bought a couple of prepared vegetarian lasagna's, so I popped them in the oven and we ate them as we were underway.  Now all that was left to do was some dishes, relax, do some blogging, and go to sleep.

​Tomorrow we have to wake up a bit early because there is a set of 4 locks as you enter the Llangollen Canal that is know to get very busy throughout the day.  Hopefully we will more successful getting up those locks than we did getting up the Middlewich locks.  We will see...