A fabulous day–out with the shorts!

We moved on a bit yesterday afternoon. Pleasant as it is, there’s very patchy phone coverage near Bridge 4W and Mags had some calls to make. So we cruised for just a half-hour and moored in the entrance to the Montgomery Canal, above Frankton Locks.
Before we left though I had to dismantle the Eberspacher and replace the fuel dosing pump after all. It started up OK first thing, but then died after about 15 minutes. The replacement pump seems to have solved the problem.

A cloudy evening dropped a bit of rain after we’d tied up, but this morning dawned clear and bright.

Twenty minutes past eight, the sun is shining and the birds are singing

Looking down Frankton Locks




Nine miles to the south-west the Llanymynech Hills sit on the horizon.

The Montgomery Canal passes just to the west of the rising ground, before crossing the border into Wales and heading onward to Newtown where it’s fed from the headwaters of the mighty River Severn.
Both the Severn and the Wye rise on the flanks of Plynlimon in the Cambrian Hills not far from Newtown, the Severn flowing east and the Wye, south. Although only around 13½ miles from the Welsh coast at Aberystwyth, they both take a convoluted route to get to the sea, the Wye taking 134 miles to reach the Severn Estuary,  and the Severn 220, making it the longest river in the British Isles.

We’ve not moved today so I decided to get John Sage (the bike, for those who don’t know) off the roof and give him a good seeing-to. The last few months on the roof have not been kind. The stiff chain succumbed to liberal applications of WD40 followed by a goodly dap of grease, but the rear brake cable and the control cable for the crank-set are irretrievable, the brake cable having started to shred and the control cable well seized in it’s outer case. So I’ve got a new set of cables on order, arriving at Val and John’s in the next couple of days.
The front brake is fine, although it will need new pads in the fullness of time, so I went for a couple of miles pedal to check things out. All’s well, although it doesn’t go up hills very well… or maybe that’s me!

We’ll be toddling on down to Ellesmere tomorrow.

I’m sorry but I got behind with the comments you are kind enough to make. So – Thanks KevinToo, Carol and Ade for saying it’s great to see the lady back on the tiller. I think so too, not least because it means less work for me!

KevinToo – Not betting on a successful outcome, it was a dead cert! Not a big job, just messy. There are always several cheap iPads with damaged screens on ebay. Might go into business…
I still might be carrying that fuel around after all, if today is anything to go by! And I don’t think we’ve quite finished with the trip boat thing just yet. Watch this space!

Hi Ade. I had a chat with the local volunteer lockie yesterday, he told me that they’re selling all the hire boats and cutting back on the chandlery and servicing side too. There’ll just be the moorings then, I guess. Not sure if all the boats are sold, though.

Locks 0, miles 1