Wending to Wales: Day 19

It was pretty misty this morning when we woke up.

We set off at just before 8, and after a little while the sun could be seen doing its best to burn off the mist.

After an hour or so we arrived at Ellesmere, and turned into the town arm.  There were a few spaces, so we turned and the end and moored up, so we could do a re-stock at Tesco right by the wharf.  Once that was done we went back down to the junction, which is overlooked by the former canal offices.

We turned right onto the water point, so we could fill the tank, start some washing, get rid of rubbish, and deal with the yellow water bottle.  Once all that was completed, we reversed back into the junction and swung round to continue our journey back towards Hurleston.  We followed another boat through Ellesmere Tunnel, and then took in the beauty of the meres as we boated past.

About a mile and a half of the canal around Bettisfield is in Wales again, and it was towards the end of this section that we began to get a loud noise from the engine hole.  A check seemed to suggest it was coming from one of the alternators, so we gave Steve from Grand Union Narrowboats at Weedon a call for some advice.  We were heading up the Prees Branch, so we decided to continue, and get RCR out to have a look.  So at Prees Junction, we turned right.

The house on the junction has a lot of outbuildings  and one just along the arm is a barn filled with road signs.

The first two bridges up the arm are lift bridges.

At the end, we turned into Whixall Marina, and moored up near the cafe.  We checked with the office that we’d be ok there, and went to the very nice little cafe for excellent panini and chips.  Before long an RCR chap turned up and diagnosed slipping belts.  He tightened everything up, using a mooring pin as a lever; the noise is certainly less, although still more than it was before.  We swung the boat around and headed out, mooring up on the SUCS moorings between the two lift bridges.  It had turned into a nice warm sunny day, so we decided to have a look as the mosses — ancient areas of peat bog which are now a nature reserve.  We walked down to the junction, over the bridge, and back the way we had come, to an entrance off the towpath.

Here there is a viewing tower, 10 metres tall, which was the level of the peat bogs 150 years ago.  The view from the top over the mosses is pretty spectacular.  The landscape is low and flat, and reminded us of African savannah.

There are some Anglo Welsh hire boats in the marina at the end of the branch, and already one that’s probably due back in the morning has moored up in front of us.  If they all decide that these are the ideal moorings, we could be surrounded by nightfall!

11 miles, 0 locks.  (232 miles, 134 locks)