Closing 2012

If you’d been following the blog last year you would have realised that I stopped entering details after we had reached Market Drayton.  No real excuse, it just didn’t happen.  I’ll attempt to bring the blog up to date with a few pics thrown in as we are already on this year’s trip, and I hope to keep the blog going throughout the journey.

The next stop after Market Drayton was Audlem, well known for the Shroppie-Fly, a canal side pub and eatery used by generations of bargemen. 

Shroppie-Fly Audlem

Three miles after leaving Audlem we came across a sign advertising Hack Green’s secret nuclear bunker?  A Second World War radar station secretly designated to play a role as a Regional Government Headquarters in the event of a nuclear war. Made redundant at the end of the Cold War it became a tourist attraction.  One interesting exhibit is the radio transmitter that sent Margaret Thatcher’s order to sink the Belgrano during the Falkland’s War.

Secret Nuclear Bunker?

Thatcher's Falkland's Transmitter

Nr Nantwich canal centre

Two days later we arrived in Chester.    Chester was great, it’s full of history, particularly Roman, has an interesting town hall, a great Cathedral and the River Dee.  An excellent stop for a couple of days.

Chester Main Street

 

Chester's River Dee

 

Chester Main Street

  

Bacchus moored in Chester

Ellesmere Port found us at the northern end of the Shropshire Canal the location for the National Waterways Museum.  We spent the night in the secure basin and visited the museum before turning round to head home.  

Near Ellesmere Port - not good for the prop

National Waterways Museum

The route home took us via Middlewich, down the Trent & Mersey Canal, through the Potteries and turning south onto the Coventry Canal at Fradley Junction.  This part of the journey will be repeated on this year’s trip, though in the opposite direction, so will be in the new blog.