Welsh waters: Day 3

We really liked the Baddiley moorings: quiet, dark, and we were on our own.  There was rain last night and it was pretty miserable-looking when we got up — but as it wasn’t actually raining we decided to do a short hop to Wrenbury.  It was just grey.

A boat passed just before we set off, so we knew we’d be behind them up Baddiley Locks.  The bottom lock had only one working top paddle, so it takes an age to fill; then there was a boat to come down, so by the time we were up the lock about half an hour must have elapsed.  Other boats were also coming down, some of them traders who’d been at the Whitchurch festival last weekend.

We carried on round the big bend at Wrenbury Heath, and pulled in at the first set of moorings, between Bridge 18 and the manual lift bridge.  Shortly after we arrived there was a brief shower, but there were also some sunny intervals.  We decided to go to the Berries community cafe for lunch, and of course by the time we got there, across the fields from Bridge 18, it was raining heavily.  We had very good toasted sandwiches, and the whole place is very friendly and nicely done.  We came back via the shop and the path through the churchyard to the lift bridge.  I needed more steps for the day, so carried on walking; I went over the lift bridge following a footpath, which then went into a field of maize.  I think technically the path is supposed to go up the side of the field, but it was very overgrown and the well-trodden route was a path between two rows of maize.  As the crop was wet, I was soaked by the time I came out the other side.

I crossed another field to a stile in a hedge.

This led to a track, which returned me to behind Wrenbury Mill and then the canal.  This afternoon has actually been relatively sunny, and there have been plenty of boats through the lift bridge.  I have put together another podcast, so I’m well ahead now, but there’s not enough signal to upload and schedule it.  Tomorrow’s forecast is even worse, particularly after lunch, so we’ll see what happens.

2 miles, 3 locks.  (13 miles, 9 locks)

Shropshire (wind)lass: Day 6

Another sunny start to the day, it’s it become really warm.  At around 8am we moved forward to the water point to top up the tank.  We could see a lock keeper doing things down at the locks, but it wasn’t really clear what.  When we were ready to go down I walked up to set the staircase, and the lockie said there was something stopping a gate from closing, which he was trying to flush off.  Eventually, whatever it was had gone and we could start going down.

When the boat was in the bottom of the staircase locks, I went down to set the first of the individual locks.  It just needed topping up, and before I could get back to the staircase the lockie had opened the gates and Adrian was coming round the corner.

A boat had come up the middle lock, so that just needed topping up, and I went and opened the bottom one so Adrian could go straight in.

As we were almost ready to leave, a boat arrived at the bottom.  I went to check there was nothing coming through the tunnel.

At the next few locks, boats had recently come up but not recently enough to have seen us and left the gate open.  None of the locks is particularly deep, but because of the open countryside you feel high up when you enter them.

At Marbury Lock, there’s a railing along the offside, in front of the cottage, presumably to demarcate their property.

Below Marbury we passed numerous boats going the other way.  On one hire boat, two little boys were sat on the edge of the cruiser stern deck with their feet dangling in the water.  I was gearing up to say something, when Adrian popped up on the well deck and told them it was really dangerous.  If they’d slipped in, they could easily have been dragged through the propeller.  A little further on there’s a field with a number of camping pods.  It seems you can rent out the whole lot for an off-grid adventure.

We went through the lift bridge by the nursery, and had already decided we’d moor this side of the electric lift bridge, just in case it was busy the other side.  We picked a nice open spot with a straight edge — and we’d finished for the day even earlier than yesterday.  When lunchtime came around, we walked back to the lift bridge and went to have a look at the nursery, before going into the cafe.

Toasted sandwiches again, which were a bit bigger than yesterday but not quite as nice.  After lunch we walked back past the boat and the electric lift bridge.  Wrenbury Mill is an ABC hire boat base, but today there were no hire boats in at all.

We walked up the canal to the next lift bridge, then took the path across the field and through the church yard.

Wrenbury village store is quite well stocked, but we only needed some milk — although a couple of ice creams somehow got added to the shopping.  For the rest of the afternoon, we’ve just been trying to keep cool.

6 miles, 10 locks.  (51 miles, 25 locks)