From Beeston Stone Lock No 33 to Snows Bridge No 77, a distance of 14 miles, 1¾ flg and 14 locks.
Start : Beeston Stone Lock No 33
Finish : Snows Bridge No 77
We got held up at Audlem Lock No 20 when something got stuck on the cill under the bottom gates so they wouldn’t close fully. We opened them both up and tried to drag what ever it was off but each time we thought we’d got it moved away it just moved to another spot.
There were a few boats behind us so we phoned the CRT emergency number and after explaining the situation to someone who actually understood the problem we waited for about an hour for the CRT crew to turn up – they basically had to walk up from Audlem because apart from a farm track to Snows Bridge No 77 there isn’t any vehicular access to the canal near by.
They basically did what we did, but better, and managed to get whatever it was (they think it was a chunk of water logged wood) off the cill and the gates closed and we got up the lock.
The delay meant that our plan of making it up to Cox’s Bank and walking down the flight to the Shroppie Fly had gone out of the window, and it was starting to get dark so we stopped above the next lock for the night and headed back down to the pub where we had some very good food and beer.
The moon was out when we walked back up the flight but I didn’t have my camera with me so couldn’t get any good shots of the moody scenes.