Middlewich

Here I am Rune

Distance 9.3 miles

Total 2925 Locks  142 Tunnels

Running total mileage 4190.4 miles

The trip today wasn’t quite as pleasant as the previous couple of days, sadly drizzly rain (I believe it is called mizzle) had moved in for the morning. We travelled back through the outskirts of Northwich and, as planned, are now back in Middlewich, although not as far as I had hoped as the plan had been to get up onto the Wardle Canal to the moorings above Wardle lock. Since it starts to get dark quite early now, we have only got just beyond the Big Lock public house, but is seems to be an OK mooring.

I suppose that we could have got here earlier but, as part of the engine servicing I wanted to change the gearbox oil before we set off. It seems I’ve made a better job of it than in previous years. When I’ve done it before I have used a short plastic hose to syphon the oil out of the filler/dipstick cavity. On these previous occasions I’ve only replaced about 350 - 400ml of oil and, knowing that the oil capacity is not that high in the gearbox,assumed that I’d changed most of it. This time, with a longer plastic tube and a hand pump I’ve drawn out and replaced a full litre of gearbox oil! Unlike changing the engine oil, which seems to always make the engine sound smoother, changing the gearbox oil give no appreciable difference (although if it wasn’t done a breakdown would be more likely).

Tomorrow I’d expect to get to somewhere around bridge 12 near Church Minshull.