Ellesmere

A lazy start, we tidied and cleaned while waiting for our guests. Daughter Nikki, son in law Paul and their two girls are joining us for a few days. They arrived at 11:45, unloaded, we had lunch and we’re away by 1:00. They brought the good weather with them. It’s been really sunny today. We

Whitchurch

A very easy day today. We set off at our usual 7:00 start and arrived here at 11:30. A short wait at Grindley Brook staircase for 4 to come down before the lockie let us up. We needed a pumpout, but the machine  was on the wrong side. Luckily there is a winding hole at

Wrenbury

A long cold day today.we left at 7:00 expecting the locks to be in our favour but, we discovered later, another boat had left at 6:15, so we had to turn almost every one. They were a couple of upcoming boats but other than that they were a against us. Breakfast was taken after we

Adderley bottom lock

Woke up to a totally blue sky – and slightly warmer than yesterday. It is 15 years since we have been on this part of the Shroppie and I couldn’t remember it at all! A short stop in Market Drayton for some shopping then off again. We stopped earlyish at some very pleasant moorings between

Norbury Wharf

Another early start down the rest of the ’21’. We didn’t see another boat until we were approaching Autherley junction, then we were in a queue. First for the temporary stoppage round some dredging, then for the junction itself. A stop at Wheaton Aston for fuel (47.9 p/l cheapest on the network?) then on to

Lock 6 Wolverhampton flight

A lazy start today. Our niece Emily, her husband Jim and their two boys live in Birmingham and we had arranged for them to come and visit. They arrived about ten, bearing muffins and cakes. So after a tea and cake break we took them for a short trip. First around the Oozells loop then

Cambrian Wharf

The weather forecast for today was for rain most of the day. So when we awoke at 6 o’clock and it was dry a decision was made to go for it. So we set off at 6:30.In fact the weather wasn’t too bad. We had a few periods of drizzly rain but it was mostly

Catherine de Barnes

The Hatton flight awaited us so we made our usual early start and entered the bottom lock at 7:24. We exited the top lock 2 hours and 56 minutes later. No bad for two 60+ old codgers! It would have been slightly quicker but we had to wait for boats coming down at two locks.

Warwick

An easy day today. We had planned only to get to the bottom on Hatton locks. As we were ahead of schedule this was only a short day. So some general boat tidying an cleaning to start with the off by 9:30. A short stop at Morrisons for supplies, followed by a full English breakfast

Radford Semele

It’s been a really wet today. The forecast wasn’t good so we set off early thinking that we were going to get wet anyway, so we would rather get it over with and be able to dry out later. There were very few boats about so we did the first 18 locks on our own.