Whitchurch to Ellesmere

Monday 30th July

Before we could set off, John had to check the weed hatch to see if anything was snagged on the propeller. As you can see it's not the easiest job for John to do!

It was worthwhile however as a long length of rope had got tangled up in the prop. It took some time to get it free.

Finally we could set off. I walked Dex along the towpath. We passed some of the Viking hire boat fleet.

I loved the message on the side of this boat.

There were a number of lift bridges on this section of canal which I had to lift for John to go through. It had started to rain and I was getting wet!

It's quite a job as you have to manually wind the bridges up and down with the windlass.

The countryside looked beautiful even in the rain!

We've decided that these doors in the side of bridges must be where the trolls live 😀

Some dramatic skies overhead!

We passed a lot of hire boats, this one was full of pirates!

They were all having a great time, especially as it had now stopped raining.

Cuddle time!

We stopped as there was another lift bridge ahead. I decided John could do this one!

There were more boats wanting to pass through the bridge. John couldn't get back to me until the bridge was shut so he was trapped on the other side of the canal!

Eventually we were on our way again.

Up ahead a hire boat had gone sideways across the canal and was clearly stuck. We had no choice but to pull over.

There was another boat waiting in front of us.

Another boat went to help them get out of the mud.

Now another boat arrived behind us, this was turning into a traffic jam!

Finally the hire boat was on it's way and we could all continue on our journey.

We passed the wine boat which we hadn't seen since the Kennet and Avon, about 3 years ago. They make their own wine and spirits on board.

We were lucky enough to be the middle boat so we didn#t have to open or close this lift bridge! Karma for earlier..

Here the canal splits and the left side is the Prees branch which doesn't go anywhere. 

We were carrying along the Llangollen canal. 

We saw some very cute dogs on the towpath. 

As we got nearer to Ellesmere we passed 3 lakes, the first was Cole Mere, then Blake Mere and the largest is just called the Mere.

Dex and I got off and walked along the towpath. It was already past 7pm. 

Dex had a lovely swim in the big lake. 

Then there was a short tunnel called Ellesmere tunnel which is only 87 yards long. 

The scenery was really wonderful.

We passed Blackwater Meadow Marina.

We turned to go to the end of the basin at Ellesmere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellesmere,_Shropshire

Unfortunately there were no mooring places available as there was a Christian boaters rally and the mooring places were all full of missionary boats! So John turned around at the end and we went back again.

We managed to find a mooring spot nearby. We went to Tesco and bought a dine in for £10 meal. By the time we ate it was past 9pm. We did get a wonderful sunset though.