Wednesday 22 June 2016

Played around with the new laptop this morning and managed to download my photos but couldn’t find them – hence the delay in getting the blog up to date!

There were a few more boats entering and leaving the Montgomery today – we were one of four waiting to go up the flight and there were at least eight entering – looks like we picked the right couple of days to do it.

A little overcast today but still warm.  We did catch the odd shower too but the sun came out in the afternoon.  

Back out onto the Llangollen – and back into hire boat city – they do provide the entertainment though.  One old chap refused our offer of help to pull him off where he had gone aground – he just whacked the throttle on full blast and said I will be off here in a minute – not a care for the boat or the bank of the canal…  he was still there when we went out of view!  We also went under a lift bridge that the wife of a couple had opened and she really wasn’t happy that a couple of boats went in either direction whilst she had opened it.  The problem is that you can only get to the side of the bridge where you have to wind it up when it is closed so once you have opened nobody else can offer to close it for you as they can’t get over the canal!

We decided to head on for Whitchurch as we liked it when we stopped on the way to Llangollen.  We arrived here at about 6.30pm.  We will walk into town tomorrow morning.

Thanks Mary for clarifying the longest day - all the leap years I've lived through and have never noticed that before!

Leaving the mooring to get in line for the Frankton Flight.

Photos from a different view today - Steve decided that I should have a go at taking the helm going up a flight - thanks Steve in front of all these people!  I'm pleased to report that I managed to enter each of the four locks without hitting the sides! 

Waiting to leave the first lock - not sure why but the lock keeper decided that he wanted two boats to go down then two boats to go up rather than one up and one down.

The boat in front has grounded out in the pound so has to wait for the boat coming down to empty the lock so he can get moving again.

In the third lock which is a staircase lock - the one above is immediately behind the lock gates - looks like there is a bit of a leak going on!

Entering Ellesmere Tunnel.

Back past the lake at Blake Mere - we would have stopped here but there were lots of other boats and we want to get to Whitchurch.

Nice shed!

Sharing the water with our furry friends!

There's Willow - nice to see she has her name sign written this year.  No sign of Tim and Annie though.

In the Whitchurch Arm - hard to believe this photo was taken at 10pm, it's still so light.