Home alone

The Montgomery canal has to be on of the most peaceful canals on the system. A lot of people told us not to bother as there was nothing down there and a waste of time and effort, We even spoke to several boaters while we were on the Monty who also said what a waste of time and we’re getting off it as soon as possible. But for us it is brilliant , it is a site of special scientific interest and every care to retain the original look of the canal has been carried out during the restoration. The chimney in the picture above is from the old bone factory at Maesbury. God knows what used to go on in there.

All the locks have these on them, they even think of the canoeist, its so they can get their canoes in and out of the water easily when passing locks. (You would be all right here Harry)

After a great few days on the Monty we pulled pins on Monday morning in glorious sunshine and headed towards Frankton locks where we had booked our passage back up on to The Llangollen canal. How the weather can change after an hours cruising the heavens opened and it came down in Stair rods, and with no where to stop we had to plod on towards the locks and get a little wet.

Typical..By the time we reached the locks the rain had stopped and the sun was out again. We arrived just before 12.00 and were fourth in line to go up. But there was trouble on the locks, the first boat up had got stuck in the bottom staircase lock, there is a concrete plinth that runs along the left hand side of the lock and some how he got stuck on it and actually took on water in the bow of the boat as the lock continued to rise and the boat didn’t. Luckily they shut all the paddles before too much water entered the boat.

Inca in the same lock. You can see the sticky out concrete on the top left, luckily we were ok and seemed to have plenty of room, maybe again he had fenders out or had put on a bit of weight and was too fat to fit.

After two and a half hours due to the boat getting stuck we made it to the top and headed towards Ellesmere. We picked up a mooring about half a mile out and then on Tuesday morning we pulled pins at 09.15 and got on a mooring in Ellesmere and did another Tesco shop. After filling with water and getting shot of the rubbish we cruised for a couple of hours and picked up a mooring just along from the Prees branch.

Carolyn said this would be a good boat for me as I seem to drink so much of the stuff.

On Thursday we pulled pins at 09.40 and headed towards Whitchurch. Carolyn has to go back down to Devon for a couple of days so its handy here for mooring and the Train station. We passed Whitchurch marina and this is the most expensive diesel we have ever seen. A little bit further back on the Shropshire canal it was 72p a litre.  Needless to say we wont be buying any here……..The reason for the two prices is that they expect you to declare how much diesel you use for moving along and how much you use for charging your batteries for domestic use when not moving. Some people will do a 60/40 split and say that 60% is domestic and 40% is propulsion. We declare 100% domestic and pay the lower price for all our diesel as we only travel enough each day to charge the batteries to 100% then stop. Strange though how some days they are charged after an hour and on another day it may take 7 or 8 hours. Anyway the split was only brought in because of them silly buggers in Europe and the sooner we are out of that the better it will be!.

Our mooring at Whitchurch and our flags flying………COME ON ENGLAND

With the sun out it wasn’t long before the chairs and wine came out and Carolyn's phone got stuck to her ear again for several hours.

Carolyn caught the train on Thursday morning leaving me Molly and Hamish home alone. With the temperature in the low twenties there was only one thing to do …... I have got a list of jobs to do but they will have to wait for a dull day…….. We are chilling.

                                                                                                                   Happy Days