Living in a hallway: May 2017

Thursday, 25 May 2017

Leaving Liverpool

Ellesmere Port was our longest stay in one place so far. On Thursday we took the X8 (bus) into Liverpool for the Skeptics in the Pub event. We spent the day exploring Liverpool which took us around Albert Dock, the Art Museum and the Waterways Museum.

We couldn't resist checking out where the Cavern Club was, definitely the most touristy part of Liverpool. The original Cavern Club no longer exists but the reproduction right next door is allegedly faithful to the original and looks like all the photos you have seen. Its still a live music venue.

The Skeptics event was held in a grand old pub called The Vines its a little run down but still quite spectacular. The function room has a stained glass dome and the whole venue is littered with carved woodwork.

It was an interesting talk about the phsycology of people who are drawn to conspiracy theories. It was a suprise to us, the lady presenting was a fellow Aussie based at Kent University.

By the time everything finished we had to catch a different bus home which dropped us off a lot further from where we wanted to be in Ellesmere Port and meant we had to walk through some shady parts of town. Ken inquired of the Bus driver where was the closest he could drop us off. While they were chatting a young man (pierced tattooed freak) piped up and asked "Were you in Halfords yesterday"? We replied "yes" and he said "not a problem I'll walk you back to the port, its not far our of my way". He was a lovely young fella and we had a good chat on the way back.

On Friday we did a bit of shopping and picked up our new curtains. Saturday it bucketed rain so we spent the day polishing curtain rails, fittings and tarting up the boat (with the new curtains).

On Saturday afternoon when the rain stopped we headed back to Stoak ready for the car show on Sunday.

Sunday was a nice day so around lunch time we headed to the Bunbury Arms for the car show. When we arrived there were only five MG's and a Volvo, we thought it was going to be a fizzer. A few more cars turned up over the next hour and we got chatting with the President of the club. In the end they made us feel like royalty and even presented us with a commemorative cap at the prize giving ceremony.

What a lovely bunch of people. We've have promised to come back next year.

The rest of the week has pretty much been cruising, according to the locals its been quite hot and we're in for a hot week. Only today a man said "its been a scorcher today" (it reached 24 today and was sunny). We found it very pleasant.

One of the unexpected highlights was the Secret Nuclear Bunker at Hack Green. (Decommissioned in 1992) Took us back to our school years when the threat of nuclear war was on everyone's minds.

We had a big day today our biggest flight of locks so far (Audelm locks are a flight of 15 and Adderley locks are another 5). We now have a system going to make it a little quicker. We definitely earnt our pint today.

Travelling slowly makes you take notice of the changes happening around you. Last month we were seeing all the new little ducklings, now we are seeing the cygnets and the goslings. The little ducklings are now bigger but their numbers are fewer. (Somethings eating them).

Here are this weeks photos and videos (they are a little long). Enjoy

Entering Chester from Northgate Locks

Houses on the Canal

View of the approach to Ellesmere Port

Sculpture Room - Art Gallery Liverpool

Liverpool Docks - Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building, & The Port of Liverpool Building

The Vines - Liverpool - Where we attended Skeptics in the Pub event

Deva and Wirral Car Club Show - Stoak

Old Crane in a field at Beeston

Beeston Castle

Iron Lock

Approach to Stone Lock

Canada Geese with Goslings

Nantwich

New Homes - Nantwich - Look at the tiny Garages

Swans and their Cygnets

Hot Air Balloon - Hack Green Locks

Inside the Secret Bunker

Horses near the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

Audlem Locks (15 in a row)

Locks this week 28
Traveled 38 Miles
Average 5 Miles per day

Thursday, 18 May 2017

Trying to get to Liverpool

It's strange how sometimes things don't turn out how you expect.

We decided to go to Liverpool for a Skeptics in the pub event run by the Mersey Side Skeptics, who produce one of our favourite pod casts. We had the route all mapped out and then found one of the canals we needed to use was closed so we changed our plan and have gone to Ellesmere Port and will use public transport for the last leg.

At Chester we found the Staircase lock was closed for repair preventing us from getting to Ellesmere Port.

Chester is an old Roman City so we weren't too concerned as the lock was due to open on the Sunday, so we decided to stay the extra days.

On the Thursday night we moored in a trendy area of Chester and had the worse night of our trip so far. The drunks were out annoying the boaters (rocking the shit out of them in the middle of the night).

On the Friday we moved out of Chester a short way to wait for the locks to open.

We enjoyed the next few days exploring the City of Chester. The races were on and all the Ladies were frocked up with their facinators on.

We decided to use some of the extra time to look for some new curtains as the ones in the boat are quite manky. We looked around to see if we could get some replacements made. Turns out made to measure curtains are very expensive and the lead time varies from 4 to 8 weeks which didn't really suit as who knows where we will be then.

Once the locks reopened we continued towards Ellesmere Port. We didn't travel far as we wanted to visit Chester Zoo on the Monday. We moored up near the road to the Zoo and and got chatting to a couple and their children who would like to buy a boat. They gave us directions to the best pub in town which was a couple of miles walk away. A bit later on the way to the pub Phil popped up at one of the bridges. "its your lucky day" he said "I'm a black cab driver, I'll take you to the pub". How could we refuse. He dropped us off then vanished. We had a great meal and a few Pints before walking back to the boat.

Monday we spent all day at Chester Zoo and managed to see everything except some of the Monkeys. We had ummed an arred about the price of the ticket but it was well the worth the price. Excellent Zoo.

Tuesday we finally made it to Ellesmere Port and are moored in the basin with the exhibits of the Waterways museum (we are a temporary exhibit).

Our first night walking around Ellesmere Port we thought "oh no what the hell have we done here". It's a working class area with lots of industry and the town is a bit like Footscray, securely locked up at night.
This morning we had to do a few domestic duties. We went to what we thought was a laundrette but turned out to be a laundry. We had a chat to the old lady running the place and surprise surprise she had relatives in Australia. She said "ah just leave your bag here I'll do the washing for you. Won't even cost you a tenner". (Thats a win).

Later in the day after wandering around the town Ken spotted a lady in a disused shop near the dock who appeared to be a making curtains. We knocked on her door to enquire of her services. (She has a brother living in Williamstown). Turns out Martha can make new curtains for us by Friday for a third of the price the shops have quoted. So we have locked in our order.

Here are our photos for this week. Hopefully we will get a better video of Chester on our way back through to Birmingham next week. (Have had alot of wind noise problems)

Coming into Chester

Camping in the Bush.

Chester Market Cross

Street Scene Chester

Chester - Above the streets - Medieval Buildings.

Chester - Looking out above the Streets from the Medieval Buildings

Chester City Wall

Club Cricket. Chester.

New Housing Estate. Chester.

Monkey - Chester Zoo

Pink Flamingos. Chester Zoo.

Horse Stables for the Canal horses.

Unusual boat.

Canalside Pub.

Horse stables at Ellesmere Port Museum. (For Lindsay)

We're and exhibit.

Nice when your filling hose matches the water tower.

Air Bus Planes flying over every day.

Locks this week 20
Travelled 20 Miles
Average of 2.9 Miles per day

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Llangollen Canal

Another successful week on the cut. This weeks highlight has to be the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct which was opened in 1805 and is made of cast iron and stone. Its over 120 feet high.

Our first trip across was very windy and it was blowing us to the side without a railing. The edge of the trough is only about a foot above the waterline. It was quite unnerving to be rubbing along a 200 year old cast iron edge. The top of our chimney pot took off like a flying saucer and was last seen heading for the goals at the home end of the football field below.

The next stretch from Trevor is shallow and skinny leading to the town of Llangollen. On some stretches someone needs to walk ahead to check there aren't any on coming boats (Linda). Good idea to take your phone.

Llangollen is the first place we have managed to stay more than one night. Its a picturesque town in Wales with lots of hills and valley's and the worst automotive museum we have seen.

We walked to the ruins of Castell Dinas Bran in the morning and it was fair climb. The views were fantastic but the wind was very cold. Later in the day we walked to Horshoe falls. Which is a weir that diverts some of the water from the River Dee into the Llangollen canal to feed the reservoir at Hurleston.

The return trip across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was more pleasant as there wasn't any wind this time. We even parked up in Froncysllte and walked back across it to the Telford Inn for a beer (we couldn't find our chimney top).

There was bit of excitement the next day when we stopped before the Chirk Tunnel as a hire boat was on fire. The people had put their bbq ashes in the bin and then gone off for a walk. Fortunately some other boaters broke in and extingushed it.

We then went off to visit Chirk Castle which is a well preserved example of a Medieval Castle with later modifications. It has beautiful manicured gardens and a wood filled with bluebells.

Back to Ellesmere for washing day.

Yesterday was a lovely sunny spring day and we just cruised. Sat on the back sipping wine.

Today we left the Llangollen canal and are now cruising up the Shropshire Union Canal. We have stopped at Beeston and have a view of Beeston Castle which reminds us of the castle from Game of Thrones. "The Eyrie".

Here are this weeks photos and video.