On the move again.

0 Locks, 5 Miles. Now moored above Cholmondeston lock.

After completing all our business in Nantwich it is time to hit the trail again. We have to be back here by the 6th October so we have a couple of weeks in which to explore some new territory. We will head off towards the Anderton lift on the Trent & Mersey canal for starters and depending on the state of the river Weaver as to how long we stay. After this we will retrace our steps and visit Chester.

A sure sign that the weather is on the down hill slide towards winter. I'm sitting here writing the blog when I hear a strange noise coming from the engine room, it took a few minutes to twig that it was the Mikuni central heating unit starting up. Having not heard it for quite some time I had forgotten what it sounded like, mind you it does have a different tone since it's last overhaul. Ah well, that means an increase in diesel consumption so I had better make sure the emergency supply cans are full. Venetian marina is still at 80p per litre so we will top up there in the morning.

While Dot was scouring the boat blogs that she follows she found an item from Nb Skyy complaining about problems with purchasing filters for an engine service. I can sympathise on this matter as I have had the same problem and have been slowly building up my own cross reference list of oil, air and fuel filters to fit our Isuzu 38 engine because automotive suppliers don't seem to have a cross reference book these days. I can go to somewhere like Halfords or Lucas's and buy an identical filter for half the price of a GENUINE  Isuzu part. I don't think it's necessary to pay double the price just to have the words GENUINE PART  printed on the outside after all it's what's on the inside that counts and if you service the engine regularly you won't have any problem.

In nearly 2 years I have only found a couple of independent automotive suppliers that do still have cross reference books. I suppose I should be supporting the canal side chandleries but I find that majority of them are not competitive price wise. After all we are living within a budget and every quid saved is a quid for something else.

1459 locks, 3043 miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006