A day of locking

last night we had a beautiful sunset in the sky and the weather promised to be warm today, it wasn't wrong i'm glad we had a little wind as it would have been unbearable if not, made an early start this morning seeing as we had  20 locks to do, as we arrived at the 15 Audlem locks there was no one waiting to go up but plenty coming down which was good for us as all the locks were set in our favor, same thing at the 5 Adderley  locks so all in all a easy locking day, we stopped along the way to buy a few things from the farm shop at Adderley then onto the mooring for the night.

last nights sunset

reflection on the water

the dreaded Audlem weirs

from the lock

hotel boats

goats at rest behind a tree

i dont always drive.

cow's off to be milked

enough for today.

                                                                           8 Miles 20 Locks

On the shroppie

well after leaving wales and the hectic boaters behind us we had a pleasant trip into nantwich for supplies then stopped off for a few cheeky drinks and a meal at the star inn and very nice it was too, now moored up for the weekend and back into a more normal routine.

Alvechurch boat hire

looking back up Hurleston

new lock landing going in

tonights view, ahhh bliss!!!!!

                                                         7 Miles 6 Locks

Bye Bye Monty

Amy's new haircut

so after spending a blissful 5 days on the montgomery it was time to go back amongst the madness we left behind, it was nice to see kiwidad and kiwimum again but we left them on the monty, we then headed to ellesmere where we needed to shop again, going into the basin in the hope there was room but this time we were unlucky, we wasn't too disappointed as we had managed to moor there twice already and it was only a short walk to the shops, coming back from shopping we bumped into sheila and jim who were moored in the basin, had a short chat then said our goodbyes and was on our way, we got caught up at Grindley Brook locks for 2 hours but had a laugh with some people who were also waiting to go down, we towed a hire boat out of the side who had managed to ground himself and gained myself some cooking apples yum!!!!

grass cutting at the services

looking up frankton locks

view from the lock

veg for sale on the lockside

canal cottage

bored waiting for the locks

the queue behind us

waterfall in the staircase

tonights view

                                                                                 12  Miles 6 Locks

Back on the Montgomery

with bank holiday weekend fast approaching fast we decided to go back on the monty (Thursday ) away from the madding crowds of hire boaters, it's been really nice just a few boats passing to come on or go off in the mornings then nothing till the next day Bliss!!!!, so whilst we had 4 days sat down here we did some jobs, nick fixed the sliding hatch as it needed a new piece of wood in the back to stop it being pulled off,then he sorted out the side hatch that was catching, i painted the front door surround in the bow and painted and resealed the side hatches.

Leaking gate

Amy's replacement for the day, steve

and Thunderstorm

Thursdays rain

Mist after the storm

RAF helicopters

yet another tench

 Nick likes it here because the fishing is good, i bet we end up back on here next year with chris.

new painted surround

front hatch painted

Bella loves to go fishing with nick

more bread no shops here

back hatch painted

Ellesmere

Foraged fruit

we have had a slow and quiet couple of day's, we moored up at  The Lions Quay and had a walk to the small retail park but there's not much there, on the way back i did a little foraging of blackberries that were in abundance, back to the boat and checked on kiwi's progress as i knew they were heading our way, found out they were an hour away from us so we decided to stay where we were and meet up with them later the next day,when we got back they were already there so we decided to go for a drink and maybe a meal at the lions quay, The food was very expensive so didn't bother, then a group of rowdy hire boaters pulled chairs up in front of us so we went back to the boat to cook, shame because its a nice place. next day we moved on and went shopping in ellesmere  they have a carnival on this weekend which should be fun seeing as it's a bank holiday.

i thought he was real

Ahhhhhh Wood

frankton junction

looking back thru the bridge

parking meter in garden

Bunting in ellesmere

plenty of mooring space today

playing football

                                                      6 Mile 2 Locks