Re-stocking

A non-moving day today, but not so for other people.  We heard the first boats heading for Hurleston Locks and the Llangollen Canal at 7am, before we were up.  After breakfast there was a steady stream of boats heading for the junction, and there seemed to be a constant queue.  We needed shopping, so walked up to the car and drove into Nantwich for a visit to Morrison’s, conscious that we’d have to carry it all back down the towpath.  When we got back, a boat that had been at the bottom of the locks was only just getting to the top, so it had taken a while.

I spent the rest of the morning editing interviews for a podcast, then we had lunch.  Shortly afterwards, our former share boat, Debdale, came along and had Carole and Nick on board who were owners at the same time as us.  It took Carole a moment to realise it was us!  They joined the queue for the locks, and we walked down to have a chat with them at the start of a walk round the reservoir.  At that point they were maybe fourth in the queue, and with other boats just wanting to go through the junction it was chaos.

It was also chaos up the locks, because people had kept coming up, even though there was nowhere for them to go.  A couple of the pounds had more than one boat waiting, in not much room.  From up at the reservoir, we could see that one hire boat had got itself into the reeds on the offside — and it was the pound which loses water so was very shallow.

We walked round to the other side of the reservoir, which seems to have more water in it than when we were here a couple of weeks ago.  On our way back, the hire boat was just coming into the top lock, so it had taken them a while.  The volunteer lock keeper told us they were from Switzerland, and that the boat behind them had overtaken them, rather than help them.  He wasn’t impressed.  By the time we got back down to the bottom of the flight, Carole and Nick were next in line for the bottom lock, but were in no hurry to turn it because there were three boats in the pound above.

Boats have continued up the flight; we reckon there must have been more than 30 go up during the day, plus a handful down.  This afternoon I have put together a podcast and scheduled it, so I now have three lined up to publish over the next few weeks.  Adrian has been doing more of his charity role, and we’ll watch the Lionesses in the Euros final while our chicken is roasting.