Surprise Surprise!!

8 Locks, 14 Miles. Now moored at Bridge 134 Chester Canal 

The delay in writing the blog is because the blogmaster has resigned and quit his position.  Now I am unable to compete with the standard that has been set previously but will try.

Yesterday morning we watered up before heading off for Ellesmere Port.  No locks just a straight run and we moored up in front of the museum.  After a light lunch in the cafe we spent the next 4 hours wandering around the museum.  It was very well presented and such a shame that the National Museum is so far north and I'm sure a lot of boaters never get there.  Around 4pm we decided that we would return to bridge 134 by the zoo that we intended visiting today.  Ellesmere Port being so close to the motorway is rather noisy which would have meant another sleepless night for me.  After years living in a quiet cul-de-sac I find it very hard sleeping if there is much noise.

As we passed under the motorway bridge on our way back towards Chester a voice from the lone walker on the towpath heading towards us called out 'Kiwi'.  I gave him the thumbs up and then looking harder couldn't believe my eyes.  That can't be Brent, sure looks like him but he's back in New Zealand.  Hang on a minute yes it is my son Brent "Good Heavens".  He called out to Derek "Hey can I have a lift?"  "Cheeky Bugger" Derek said, I realised that he was not going to pull over so grabbing the centre rope I said to Derek pull over at the next bridge and I'll get off.  Wow, what a totally unsuspected surprise.  My elder son Richard was in on the secret and speaking to him the previous evening he had asked where we were, how long for and our plans.  Finding where we were moored on Google Earth I never suspected a thing. 

Brent had been in Europe on a tour for the last three weeks and had caught the train up from London to Ellesmere Port.  Walked out of the station towards the towpath that the train had just travelled over, he saw a boat coming.  Guess Who?  Absolutely Unbelievable.  He had walked less than half a mile and found us.  Of course it helped that we were the only boat on the move.  But it couldn't have been planned any better if we had tried.  There were so many variables that could have changed the outcome even by 5 minutes.  Someone up there was looking out for us.

He will stay with us until we get back to Nantwich on Monday and then catch a train back to London before heading back to New Zealand next Tuesday via the states.  Please excuse me if I don't blog so often we have lots to talk about.

Today we have spent the whole day at Chester Zoo and were a little wet and bedraggled by the time we got back to the boat about 4.30pm.

Tomorrow we will head the mile or so back to Chester for a couple of days to do some more sightseeing.

1493 locks, 3147½ miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006