Bartimaeus

In order for Shane to be near a station for his dental appointment we had to stretch out our time near Chester, longer than we would normally be in one place. There is more than one mooring spot though. We had been just on the edge and then we moved into the middle going through the locks with another shared ownership boat, Maia. She had been recently painted and looked very smart. She was slightly longer too so had to take care about positioning in the lock. On the locks where the gates don’t open completely Shane warned the other driver, since we had done these before. 

But what we had not done before was the staircase locks. I am never very happy working locks that are outside my standard range. It stretches my limited understanding of fluid dynamics and engineering beyond its comfort zone. Shane is happy to do them but I thought that if I never do them I will never learn and this set did come with written instructions.

I read the start of the long instructions. Top lock should be filled  – yes it already was full, so I  opened the gate and Shane went in. The middle lock should be only part way, I thought so and the bottom looked empty but seemed very far away. We had seen someone else a few days ago at the bottom lock  saying he couldn’t see the coloured panels as he went through so I didn’t go and look for them. That was a mistake, but I wouldn’t have seen them either, but I could have checked more thoroughly.

I opened the paddle – only one was operational – but down below at the next lock water gushed across the path, flooding the side of the canal and cascading down the path like a river I knew something was wrong and realised that because the middle lock starts with high walls that then slope down, I had though it wasn’t full but in fact it was. So there wasn’t room in the middle lock for all the water that was rushing from the top lock. I closed the sluice and the gushing stopped. I was uncalm – like the water had been on the path. 

Meantime Maia was approaching so just as I was considering shrinking back into my sphere of experience and driving, I realised I would now have help with the staircase and Shane was preparing the top lock for them to join us. One of their crew went and emptied the bottom lock, while I emptied the middle lock.  When I say emptied, I realised I should check the instructions as I remembered it saying it should be half full and I didn’t know when half way was. This time I decided to take a photo of the directions, so I didn’t have to keep running back and forth. As it got deeper and deeper I thought there were no coloured markings but at last they appeared and we closed the sluice.

I helped empty the bottom lock since it did have two paddles. I still felt a bit strung out but the chat with the other crew had helped de-stress. I can’t decide whether I never want to do one again or whether I need to keep trying. Shane does actually enjoy them and I might too once I have got it right. 

We were mooring just round the corner but there was less space than expected. I was still on the bank having walked from the lock. Shane and I were trying to decide if we fitted when a man popped his head up from the small boat at the front of the space and asked if we would fit if they moved forward a few feet. I said yes definitely and helped untie their boat. It all fitted nicely once the bit of available bank had been extended by a couple of metres. 

The next day Shane set off for Edinburgh. After a morning of blogging, sweeping, stretching exercises and  cleaning the shower, I decided it was time to get out and about. I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to explore but I did need to stretch my legs and it was sunny. Taking a different route away from the staircase lock so as not to cast eye on my nemesis, I found myself at a different entry point to the city wall. There was a map at this point and an information panel saying that it was the most intact city wall in Britain and while there had been some breaches and rebuilds the route of the medieval wall was still possible. I decided to walk right round. There was a tower that couldn’t be accessed called water tower. I could go down to the park and walk round the base or walk around the wall but the tower itself was off limits

After a while the wall became part of the level pavement. There was a lot of building work on the outside of the wall. On the inside was a hospital and a school for girls, The Queens School.

The school had extended with a bigger more modern building on that side of the road but had also stretched to the other side of the road into sports fields that were locked and for the school use only. Soon the level pavement became a high wall again, rising to go over a road at what was called Watergate. At one time the river had come here and it was a bustling port,  and the gate was where taxes and tolls were extracted. But over time the estuary silted up and it was now very much land.

The next landmark was well below the path but had been built up with viewer seating and access gated, a race course. The track was clearly visible but there were no races on today.

Further on a large building loomed on the inside of the wall on a grassy mound and looks like it had a lot of rooms, Chester Castle. Mainly museum and administrative headquarters rather than royal residence or defence. It oversees the bridge over the Dee that is the the route into Wales.

Looking across the river, I noticed a cormorant on a log, then in flew a heron and joined it. The view was fine here. People and birds were admiring the outlook.

The route is about two miles but I was beginning to reach parts I recognised from my previous part routes on the wall. The famous Tudor buildings were in view on one side and the Roman Gardens appeared on the other.

This part of the wall was busier being near the main attractions and shops and cafes. I took a diversion to look at a court I had seen before that I thought might have a cafe. None of the shops were drawing me, some were closed on a quiet Tuesday and I didn’t want a tattoo. The one cafe looked empty and siting on my own might make me self conscious enough without being the only person in there. I wasn’t desperately needing a drink, but there was some writing on the wall stretching round the corner, that caught my attention. I might return to the cafe another time.

I did try later at another cafe but found it closed. Tapas bar by Northgate had a fine smell. I was not far from the end of the wall walk, with the canal in view. I could see the boat that had been moored behind us but had moved on this morning. I hadn’t gone far.

I tried to get a photo of the staircase lock before leaving the wall but there were trees or a poor angle on it so in the end I went back to it from my exit point and stood at the bottom looking up as  my fear stretched out before me. I still couldn’t get a good line up to the top of the staircase. You do really need to walk the length to examine all the locks. Maybe next time.