Saturday, 4 August 2018

Weston Branch to St Martin's Moor

Friday 3rd August

It was warm but overcast. We were booked to go back through the Frankton locks but they weren't open until 12. There were already 2 boats queuing. We saw another 2 boats go past us up to the locks so decided the best thing was for me to go to the lock and I would let John know when to start moving. We had our walkie talkies.
 The first boat went in the lock. There were also 3 boats waiting to come down. It would be up to the lock keepers to say when we could move.

 The second boat went in the lock. I was chatting to the boaters. Most were heading for Llangollen same as us. I asked about the aqueduct. Apparently there are 2 plus 2 tunnels!
 There was a family on holiday together with 2 hire boats. Eleven plus 2 dogs. They seemed to be having a wonderful time. It seems like a great way to have a family holiday.

 Eventually I told John to come up and moor by the locks. He was on his second walkie talkie, the first one had come unclipped from his belt and went straight in the canal! Good job we had 2 sets! 

 We chatted with the couple in front of us. They lived in Spain and had decided to tour around on their boat whilst their house was being renovated. They told me that we could get electric hook up at Llangollen so that meant I could do some washing! It was piling up as we still couldn't use our machine until the generator was fixed.
 They went in the lock and we waited for our turn.

 We waited ages. Apparently the lock keepers had to let some water into the pound so it slowed everything up.
 Dex was bored! 😀
 Finally at 1.20pm I went into the first lock.


 John was chatting with one of the lock keepers. They had had metal safety handles fitted to the end of the lock gates following a couple of accidents. Now there was an argument between English Heritage who said they should be removed as weren't in keeping with the original gates and the Health and Safety executive. Could be fun to be a fly on the wall in that meeting! 😀
The canal side on the right is the site of a former dry dock. It was here that the Canal boat Cressy was restored.
There is a plaque on the wall by the lock which commemorates this story. http://www.montgomerycanal.me.uk/frankton.html






 There was this funny gap in the wall of this lock, a troll home perhaps?! 😀
 Finally we were up and could start on our next journey up the Llangollen.



 It was quite shallow in parts and we could see rocks on the bottom.



 It was funny weather, still quite overcast and even some fine rain but still very warm.

 There were quite a number of hire boats coming the other way. Apparently because of the closure at Middlewich the volume of traffic is about half what it normally would be at this time of year. Good for us but not for the tourist trade on the Llangollen.




 We passed one of the boats which had been queuing with us earlier.
 We went past the boatyard at Welsh Frankton and one of the hire boat centres. It is big business on this canal, we've never seen so many different hire boat Companies.

John's Boat! 


Further ahead we could see a hire boat in trouble on the wrong side of the canal and it appeared to be stuck! Unbelievably another hire boat was overtaking it! You don't normally overtake on the canal, not unless the boat in front signals that it is ok. Also it's really bad to leave another boat in trouble. Luckily they did manage to get unstuck but told us as they passed that the other hire boat had thought it funny to pressure them into driving too fast so they got stuck, and then overtaking. Some people shouldn't be on the canals, it's not a race!









We could see another hire boat coming towards us. Then we realised it was our German friends, Frederick and Charley from the other night! We waved and thanked them for the beers as we past by.




We arrived at New Marton locks, a set of 2.


No other boats around so John had to do all the work himself.


At the second lock we could see a boat coming out of the lock but a woman was dragging the boat by the front rope. I thought they had broken down but apparently they were stuck on the bottom! John let some water down by opening the top paddle and this released them so they could move.
We could then go in the lock.

There was a cute little bridge over the stream by the side of this lock.




We finally arrived at St Martin's Moor where there is a café and a bric a brac shop with all proceeds going to charity.
There is also a dragon!
We found a good mooring spot and it also had WiFi reception! 


I fed the ducks much to Dex's disgust. Apparently they like lettuce according to Google but to be honest they kept looking at me to say where's the bread?? 😁
I took Dex for a walk later and got chatting to the man on this hire boat. He is Steve and his dog is called Albert. We were chatting away and suddenly Albert decided to jump off the boat and join Dex on the towpath! They couldn't get him back on board so he walked along with us until the next bridge. Such a cute dog.

I found this fisherman a bit creepy!
There was a very cute giant Schnauzer nearby.
A beautiful spot.

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