Not much to report.

 We've not done so much in the last few days, in fact a trip that would normally be a good day has taken us eight! Such is our winter cruising.

We picked up the Tesco delivery a week last Monday evening as planned, then on Tuesday pushed on to moor near Prees Junction for the night.

Morris Lift Bridge, the one that takes a shoulder-numbing 85 turns of the windlass to lift...

We would have stayed longer at the junction, there's access to several good walks from there, but the water tank was getting low so we had to move on again on Wednesday.

Into Wales, briefly

Topping up the tank in the sunshine at Bettisfield.

With a full tank we've a week before needing to find a tap again, so we cruised around to Hampton Bank and spent several days moored there, looking out over the Shropshire Plain.

The weather was a bit mixed, some pleasant sunny days and some windy damp ones. But I was able to do some paintwork repairs where I'd scraped the top of the swan's neck under New Mills Lift Bridge the other week. 

A few other smaller jobs kept me busy until we moved on up to Ellesmere yesterday (Wednesday).

Autumn has arrived near the meres...

We topped up the water tank, emptied the loo and got rid of accumulated rubbish and recycling at the wharf opposite the Ellesmere Arm, then pulled across to moor just outside the arm.

It's pleasant here, sunny when we have any and a little less footfall than down the arm. We'll be here for a few days I reckon.

Locks 0, miles 8½