New Year Cruise - Day Four

Grey and damp as we set off down the remaining Audlem locks this morning at 9.15. We passed three boats coming up, including a hire boat being moved from Anderton to Alvechurch, and Mike on Zulu Warrior, who's moving from a mooring at Middlewich to a new one at Uxbridge.

We stopped for water below lock 13, while having tea and Christmas cake. Tomorrow's forecast suggests there could be snow, so we've decided not to go too far. So we went down the final two locks, winded in the hole at the bottom, and came back up them again. The ice in the winding hole made it trickier than usual to get around. We moored in a nice open spot on the embankment below lock 13 at just after midday, by which time the rain was much heavier, so we walked up to the Shroppie Fly for lunch. The we went into the village for some shopping. In the afternoon, in a break in the rain, Adrian and I went for a walk through Audlem, and found a footpath across the fields to the bottom lock. The forecast doesn't seem to include snow anymore, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the morning.

2 miles, 15 locks. (18, 27)