The Hodma'dod: A week around Chester

Arriving at Chester on the Monday we found a mooring right in the city centre literally yards from the shops and spent a couple of nights there. The dogs weren't frightfully impressed as there were no rabbits around and very little grass but they did perk up when we found some squirrels in one of the parks. Chester is a really lovely city with a history that reaches back to the Romans and has a city wall which is virtually intact and you can walk right round the city on it. The dogs were not impressed by this either!

We then went on to the end of the Shropshire Union canal where it meets the Manchester Ship canal and spent a night there and had a wander around the Canal museum which was interesting, not least because whilst there the fire alarm went off and we had to be evacuated. It turned out to be a false alarm but trust the Ruddles to get caught in the middle of it! We then returned to Chester with the idea of stocking up and moving on the following morning (Friday) but this was such an appalling day that we sat tight. It was so bad that I said to Sarah in the morning that I would put the satellite dish up during a break in the rain so that we could watch Wimbledon but that beak never came so the ariel didn't go up.

We moved on on the Saturday, a quite pleasant day; came through the locks with another boat with a Gardner engine chugging away and stopped for the night at The Shady Oak at Beeston and had a few jars with the couple from the other boat. Sunday then saw us visiting Beeston Castle and although its a bit of a steep climb the views from the top are magnificent, you can see all the way to Liverpool, Joderall Bank and a total of 8 counties. It was a sunny morning which was good but by the afternoon the rain had returned so we depressed ourselves by watching Andy Murray lose at Wimbledon.