haggis

Thanks, Junior. The meal on Blue Ginger last night was very good so we will go back.

There is a winding hole a wee bit before the big lock and if you are only going up it to turn and come back, I would suggest winding there. I find the bottom gates on the big lock pretty hard ( in fact my better half had to come up and help me this morning) and no point in tackling the lock unless you really want to. There are never volunteer lockies at the big lock. Enjoy your trip

A few years ago a retired skipper of the QE 2 volunteered with a couple of canal organisations in Scotland and not only did he have to sit and pass an MCA bostmasters test to be in charge of a trip boat with more that 12 passengers, he had to do the RYA Inland Waterways helsmans test to skipper boats with under 12. He took it in good part !

We went to the Blue Ginger. Iain had spent the afternoon servicing the engine so felt like a visit out was in order. Lovely meal although we were the only customers. It is not licenced so i had a glass ( not a bottle ) of water and Iain had a Coca Cola. These two drinks cost £4.80. !! No wonder we drink alcohol. ☺️

Thank you, David, but Chinese or Indian is calling. Unusually for us we have not had Italian, Chinese of Indian this holiday.

Blue ginger even .? 🙂

Is that Tesco Express ? I noticed there was an Indian restaurant next door.

Yes, it does. I tend to keep cards and menus from eating places and I have just found one for Blue Ginger so that suggests that when we had a meal from there it was worth keeping the menu sadly, I have no idea how long ago that was but just been looking at their web site and it looks tasty

Thanks but don't need a dentist 🙂. Yes the footbridge at big lock has been restored and is now fully functional again and it looks very smart. Big lock pub also had s refurbishment and we have often eaten there but a couple of weeks ago it was pretty awful and no one came to ask if everything was ok. I briefly mentioned it when we paid the bill but at that point not worth making a fuss but it just made us decide not to go back for a while.

Funny you should mention the chippy opposite Kings lock. The other day we gave a nice young chap a lift along the Macc to Kidsgrove and he told us that the chippy is owed by his aunty and if we went in to say we had given him a lift and we would get huge portions. We did think of stopping at that end of Middlewich but didn't so a visit there tonight is not on the cards.

We are moored in Middlewich and, having eaten out the last few nights, it is perhaps time for a carry out meal. Where does the team suggest are good Chinese or Indian takeaway s here now ? We are moored at the kiddies play park just along from.Big Lock. We would normally go there but had a disappointing meal there a couple of weeks ago so a change is on the cards.

When we started canal boating over 30 years ago I took emergency rations and considered it a fail if I had to use them. To put it in perspective, we don't eat out much at home and it was one of the holiday treats to eat out. Fast forward to covid and things changed. It now became the exception to eat out and we got used to eating on board. Now that covid rules have relaxed a bit we have had some meals in canal side pubs this last week or so but how things have changed. Despite it being a holiday weekend, we have often been the only people eating and there were very few folk just in the pub for a pint. This doesn't look promising for the future of canal side pubs.

I thought it even more odd that he suggested we postpone our trip till Tuesday. I reminded him that Bosley wasn't open on a Tuesday🙂 No problems with the lockies today.

That's us down Bosley locks with great help from the volunteers. It was not the quickest trip as we had a slow shared boat in front but that didn't matter as with having help I was able to do what I felt able to do and either the lockie or Iain did the hard bits. I had phoned C&RT to see if I could get help and I was advised to postpone our trip till Tuesday as the manager I spoke to didn't know if there would be any volunteers on on the bank holiday Monday. When we moored on the holding moorings last night we walked round and I put a note on the lockies hut door. He told me he knew yesterday we wanted help so everything worked out fine.

Thank you !

We are going back down on Monday and after the nightmare we had coming up I am hoping to get some assistance but can't find anywhere on the C&RT website about booking assistance. Just have to speak nicely to a volunteer at the top, on Monday morning

Nothing really to do with attitudes to hirers but since we have been on the Macc and Peak Forest, we have seen very few hire boats. Presumably with the Marple and Bosley restrictions they are being advised to go elsewhere.

Sorry, I didn't explain what I was trying to say. I meant that while there are boaters of all types who area bit selfish some are more identifiable than others, for example hirers and ex working boats seem to come in in for a lot of stick. Not that it really matters but we are privates boaters . We hired for many years then shared a boat for many more years before buying our own. Haggis

I think what this thread shows is that there are good and not so good boaters in all types of boating - hirers, sharers, working, ex working, private but some types are more identifiable than others

Oh, we had shares in Copperkins for over 20 years and I do hope that I was not bossy with other boaters. We did sometimes find though that the boat was not as welcome where it had been on a previous cruise 🙂

Yes, that's what gave me the idea.

Thanks Goliath, for your recommendation we had a lovely meal and will go back, nice friendly staff too. We managed to moor at the top of the steps so it fitted the bill very well. Meg doesn't accompany us to pubs but has her after dinner nap while we are out.

We were trying to remember the name of that place which we visited many years ago.

At the top as I was thanking the volunteers I said it was the first time I had asked for help and his response was "from C&RT or us. I didn't know I could ask C&RT for help ! At the bottom there was a volunteer who asked if the boat ahead if us was on his own and I said i thought so and she said she would come back down and help him. I said that I could do with help too and explained why. No volunteer appeared till the single hander was in lock 6 . When the volunteer saw that I was really struggling although Iain was doing most of the work, he summoned another volunteer to help us and I retreated into the boat we were the last boat up but I think we started about 11. Came out the top after 2. I might ask for help on the way back down.

Yes, several times but not for several years.