It was the most Septemberish morning so far, with mist first thing and mellow colours. We set off just after 8, along with almost everyone else. I let two hire boats go by as I held onto the bow rope, and then another one followed us.
At the lift bridge before the Whitchurch Arm, one of the guys on the lead boat wound the bridge up and then got back on board. One of the boats on the moorings there was also trying to set off to turn around, so the lady from that one walked up to put the bridge down again.
One of the hire boats in front and the one behind both stopped at Whitchurch Marina, their things all packed up for home. The other boat was from Wrenbury, and carried on. They were pretty slow, seemingly repeatedly forgetting to get back off tickover once they’d passed moored boats. Eventually they pulled over and let us pass. On the long straight before Prees Junction, we were slowly catching up a line of boats. The lift bridge had been raised by someone, and the guy on the boat just in front of us got off to close it, apparently without realising we were there. When he did, he waved us through. We stayed on the main line at the junction; we’ve never been up the Prees Arm, so we may have to make time for that on the return.
Just beyond, we overtook a group of paddleboarders.
We were now in another slow procession for a couple of miles. The hirers immediately front of us eventually got so frustrated they called out to the boat in front to see if we would let us pass. He agree, and then kept going at the same speed, which didn’t make things easy. It turned out to be the guy who’d had a mare at the staircase locks yesterday. After a bit, the hirers and us caught up with a day boat going so slowly that even our tickover was too fast. Several miles later, he also pulled over, claiming he was going as fast as he could. Eventually we got to the meres. You only get glimpses of Cole Mere through the trees, but Blake Mere is much more visible and it’s beautiful. Quite a few boats had moored up to enjoy the views and the shade as it was now really hot again.
Next was Ellesmere Tunnel, just a short one but hard work this way because of the flow on the canal. The hire boaters had already gone in, so I knew it was clear.
We carried on to Ellesmere Junction, where we turned into the arm. We’d been able to hear music, and from the arm we could see that a sausage and cider festival was in full swing, next to a cricket match — although somewhat meagrely attended.
To our surprise, there were several moorings available on the arm, so we went towards the far end because the main purpose of the visit was to restock at the handy Tesco by the basin. The fridge had become decidedly bare; it’s not now, in fact Adrian struggled to get everything in. We also went into Ellesmere town centre, which looks surprisingly healthy, to see if anywhere sold directors chairs, as one of our pair has suffered a catastrophic collapse! Unfortunately nowhere did.
We hadn’t planned to stay in Ellesmere, and even if we had the music would have driven us out. It wasn’t bad, we just didn’t want to hear it. So we turned in the basin and headed back out to the junction.
We turned right towards Llangollen and have continued for a few miles, meeting lots of boats. We’ve moored on the SUCS moorings between bridges 66 and 67, with the shade increasing as the sun moves round, and a towpath wide enough for the Cobb barbecue to make another appearance. We’d been hoping for a picnic table or a bench, but you can’t have everything.
16 miles, 0 locks. (173 miles, 114 locks)
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