We had a lovely evening with Helen and Andy last night, and Whitchurch turns out to be a good place for a visit. The roads leading here are pretty good, and there’s a little canal and country park car park just beyond the end of the arm.
This morning we timed things exactly right. We had looked at the weather forecast, and decided to get up in good time — so we were pulling out of our mooring at 8.20, first going up the arm to turn around.
Back on the mainline, we carried on upstream in rather dark overcast conditions. There were a couple of lift bridges; this one is just someone’s drive.
It was a full hour before we saw another moving boat, and we didn’t see another until after we’d moored. You’d struggle to believe this is one of the busiest canals in the country, especially at the moment. Our planned stop was the moorings at Welsh End, and the whole length was free when we arrived. We moored in exactly the same spot last time we were here. Then about two minutes after we’d tied up the rain started — light at first, but then really heavy at times. It rained for a good couple of hours, and all but one of the boats that went past was a hire boat, on a schedule.
After lunch we had a lovely video call catch-up with my cousin Catherine and Nigel, and it looks as though we’ll see them next month. By then the rain had stopped, so we headed out for a walk, and ended up along the canal by the lift bridge, and following the orange route round part of Whixall Moss.
The whole area, which is restored peatland, has a sort of other-worldly quality about it. It reminds me of an inland Dungeness.
The sun even came out while we were walking back to the boat. Now we have a chicken roasting in the oven. The other nice thing that happened today was that The Water Road had a nice review in the weekly Podcast Rex newsletter.
4 miles, 0 locks. (25 miles, 19 locks)
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