Another update

 My posts recently have been weekly, or thereabouts. While there's nothing much happening I reckon they'll stay that way for a while.

So, we stayed just at the start of the Ellesmere Arm for a little longer than planned, but we moved across to the services on Monday to fill and empty before moving out a little way into the country. It seemed everyone else had the same idea, and it was nearly two o'clock by the time we'd got sorted. 

Consequently we didn't get very far, pulling in after just 15 minutes near the winding hole. It was a bit damp and gloomy anyway. 

Moored on Monday afternoon with a pair of swans for company.

We stayed here until today, enjoying the relative quiet, moving on later this morning.

Autumn has definitely arrived, there are more leaves in the water clogging the prop than are left on the trees!

We cruised slowly past the moored boats between bridges 60 and 61, then past the Tetchill visitor moorings, before we could speed up a little as we approached Val Hill.

Not too fast though, the batteries were getting a little low with all the idleness we've enjoyed these last few days, so extending the time we cruised by going slowly would give us a few extra amps. And anyway it was a pleasant day so what's to rush for!

The canal curls around the base of Val Hill, passing through three awkward blind bridges.

  

Interesting when the summer traffic is about!

We toddled on to Frankton Junction, where we interrupted a fisherman by reversing in to moor above the locks.

He wasn't too bothered though, and a mug of tea smoothed the way!

We'll have a couple of nights here.

You may have noticed that the photos are a bit sharper than they have been. My elderly and much abused Fuji camera has gone a little fuzzy, so I've pressed an old phone with a particularly good camera into service. Might even stick with it for a while. And I'm having to replace this laptop soon, it's starting to switch itself off unexpectedly. Yes, I have checked that the cooling vents are clear and the fans are working! The touch pad hasn't worked for ages, as well. I'll miss the old girl though. She's given me several years of service, upgraded through from Windows 7 to 10, and I installed more RAM and a 512Gb solid state drive a while ago. Shame she's getting a bit flakey. Good time to buy a new one though.

Locks 0, miles 3½