Return to Ellesmere

We decided to up-sticks and move on to Ellesmere today. Charles and Ann on Moore2Life were there already, and George and Carol on Rock’n’Roll were stopping at New Marton another day.

It’s been a fine day, mild earlier but getting a little cooler when a northerly breeze blew up later.

A canalside householder near the junction has a wry sense of humour….
You don’t see many of those up here!

They’d been a few boats about in the morning, but by the time we got going the traffic seemed to have eased. Just as well, with the blind bridges and tight bends around Val Hill to contend with.

Twists and turns near Val Hill

Someone needs their fringe cutting…

Nearing Ellesmere there’s a trio of young swans, two of them are not quite confident enough to share their patch of water with a noisy lump of tin…

Lift off!
I was ready for them, as they’d taken off in front of us when we went up a couple of weeks ago. It was still a bit of a snatched shot, though. I always find amazing the amount of effort that goes into getting off the water.

Arriving at Ellesmere we pulled in one the moorings near the sanitary station for a change, instead of going down the arm. Moore2Life and Jandai are just around the corner.

Chas and Ann and Molly, and Meg and I had a walk along the canal to the footpath across to the mere, chatting with Colin and Tina on NB Go-For-It on the way. Then on the way back, walking along the arm, I spotted a boat that looked familiar. We’d not seen Glen and Nigel on NB Ami Bovard (say it out loud…) to speak to  since we met them in Paddington Basin over two years ago. They’re passing through on their way up to Llangollen.

I picked up our mail from the Post Office on the way back, so now we’ve got our voting papers for the C&RT boaters representatives. I think we’ve made our choices…

We’ll stay here tomorrow, then move out on Saturday, weather permitting.

Locks 0, miles 3