Keep on Walkin'

I thought it was about to time to give an update on my walk round the Cheshire ring. If you've not read earlier posts it's about 100 miles of canal path around Manchester and Cheshire. I'm not doing it all in one go but in little bursts. The first stretch was from Manchester down to Runcorn along the Bridgewater Canal but now I have reached the Trent and Mersey Canal. Today's section was from Barnton Tunnel to Wincham near Northwich. There are 5 tunnels on this canal and this was my third. You can't actually walk through them as they were built for one way traffic and for boats alone. But a tow path over the top provides a pleasant woodland stroll. If you are in a boat you work on a strict timetable so for example between o'clock and 20 past boats go up through the tunnel and between half past and ten to they travel in the pther direction. 

I walked most of today's journey with a heron - well that's not strictly true but every time I got near him he flew on to show me the way. Which was kind but unnecessary as the aren't many junctions on a canal. 

Being January it's somewhat cold and rainy and as such the path is mud central. In one stretch a tree had fallen and covered the path but climbing over this was not my biggest challenge. Can you spot the difference between my feet and work out the problem:

Maybe this picture will help:

Yes, as I was walking I suddenly felt like I was limping and when I looked back I found the lower half of my shoe in the mud about 10 metres back. Fortunately I had some emergency shoes with me as my boots are prone to giving me blisters but this considerably slowed down my progress - trainers just don't cope as well with mud. 

One of the landmarks I passed was the Anderton Boat Lift. In the days when people transported everything via the canal network (1875 to be precise) people searched for a way of connecting the canal with the nearby River Weaver which lies about 50 feet below. A clever engineer (Edwin Clark) came  up with the boat lift which is a nifty idea for transporting boats up or down between the waterways. Essentially there are two containers of water; when a boat enters one of these from the canal it becomes heavier and the container (and boat) moves down to the river level whilst the other container, due to the counter balance system, rises back up to the canal. By emptying water out and refilling you don't even need another boat - just a a clever hydraulic system that does it all for you. Happily the boat lift has been restored in recent years and complete with visitors centre makes an interesting afternoon out. http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/Anderton-boat-lift

In the back of shot you can also see some of the salt works that surround this part of the country. If you've ever been behind the salt spreader and wondered where all the salt comes from well chances are it was from one of these places - there's even a salt museum. It's where every well "seasoned" traveller visits. (Sorry!) 

I still have about 2/3 of the way to go on the walk but I've worked out that if I can do at least 8.5 miles each month I'll get there. So four more miles were done today. Co-walkers are always welcome to join me (especially if you have a car so that we can do the car at both ends of the journey trick and save me having to walk back on myself) - the journey seems much shorter with company.

Now I just need to buy myself some new boots!