And we have a PLAN. (note the capital letters)
Yes, we left Ellesmere last Saturday morning. Amber had the chance to say goodbye to her mates on the field before we left; she'll miss her evening chase about with Molly, Tess and Dillon. But it's time to move on.
A victim of Storm Franklin in February, which blocked the footpath up to The Plantation outside Ellesmere.
Such a shame that an oak that was probably here when Wellington defeated Napoleon is now just firewood.
Like I said, we have a plan. First off we'll be meeting Richard the fuel boat man later this morning to top up the tank and sell us a couple of bags of smokeless. Hopefully the last we'll need before autumn.
Then we're heading out onto the main line at Hurleston and down to Nantwich to meet a chap who's booked to do some work on our gas supply. The flexible hose to connect the bottles is past it's sell-by, and while he's doing that I've asked him to fit a bubble tester (for leak detection) and to replace the run of copper pipe through to the stove.
That's Monday so we've got to get a bit of a shift on.
The 4-yearly Boat Safety Examination is due in May and I intend to get that done before we move away from the area, so I've arranged for that with Dave Freeman at Taft Wharf. He's done it before and is sensible in his approach and pricing.
To get there we're heading across to the Trent and Mersey via the Middlewich Branch then up and over the Stoke Summit to Great Haywood. Dave can meet us somewhere there.
And then...
We'll scoot off up the Staffs and Worcester Canal past Wolverhampton and Kidderminster to Stourport where we'll join the mighty Severn which will take us to Gloucester. We intend to spend 3 or 4 weeks on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal before heading back north. Haven't decided on the return route yet though.
That's the plan, anyway...
So Saturday afternoon we pulled in on Hampton Bank after a very pleasant trip down past the Meres.
Yesterday we moved on. I'd intended to stop at Wixhall Junction but the weather was reasonable so we pushed on to Fenns Bank.
Tilstock Park Lift Bridge, the second of two.
The blackthorn is out, always a sign that the good weather is coming.
A beautiful evening as the sun went down.
The forecast for today said wet and windy, and it wasn't wrong. Richard was slow getting away from Grindley Brook this morning, lots of people flagging him down for fuel. In fact he was quite a bit later than he wanted and I expected. We didn't actually get away until half two, but that worked in our favour as most of the heavy showers had cleared off eastward by then.
Unusual design for a boat tender...
I was just preparing to cast off when a hire boat came around the corner. I gave them a shout, suggesting that they open the lift bridges ahead of us, and I'd close them. They gave me the thumbs up but it didn't actually work out that way.
They took pity on me working alone and opened and closed all three! There were six aboard...
Approaching the top of Grindley Brook Locks.
One benefit of arriving in late afternoon is that the morning queues have gone.
Apparently it was crazy this morning with no volunteers on to organise things!
We dropped down the locks steadily, I had a little help on the triple staircase from a chap waiting to come up, and was able to swap one of the singles with an uphill boat. It was five o'clock by the time we pulled in, very late by our standards, but only 2½ hours after we set off, so a good run.
Locks 6, miles 13¾
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