28th Sept.'12

What a difference a day makes! We had a couple of showers earlier but now it is lovely and sunny and we have moored in the dry!

I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw a boat that was registered 2 before us! they were 520031. This is probably of no interest to anyone but us but we got quite excited about it.

I walked Paddy up through the locks this morning to post some postcards - I send one regularly to my mum, in the hope that it helps her work out where we are (we will never get her to understand WHY but where we can do something about). I also sent ones of the aqueduct to the eldest grandchildren, hoping to get them interested in what their Granny and Grumpy are doing.

We have come down 9 locks today,dropping just over 57' and as predicted we have seen increasing signs of floods. At one lock there was an elderly gentleman just walking along and he told John that his cottage was flooded and he had no idea what to do, heartbreaking. I suspect he probably didn't have insurance - what on earth can anyone do in these circumstances?

We have gone a step further with Paddy's freedom today and allowed him to run off the boat at some of the locks were there were no other people around. He was really good and came back to the boat each time I told him to. He loves running along the towpath and is becoming much braver about having a run without us there to call him. It's lovely to see him enjoying himself so much.

We had hoped to leave the Llangollen today and get back onto the Shroppie, but at the last lock we picked up something on the propeller and the steering became too heavy so we have stopped short of a mile from the final 4 locks that take us down to the junction and John has been down the weedhatch and cleared it of a wooden hanger and rope for a fender - no fender thankfully!

We are now enjoying being dry and airing the boat out a bit - it's surprising how damp the cratch had become and everything felt a bit musty. Another hour of this warm air circulating and it will be back to normal.






Amazing what some people keep in their back gardens! This looks as if it's come from a fairground ride!







We totally failed to get a drink here in either direction which was a shame as on the way they had Beartown Brewery's Bear Arse which as may have been mentioned before is one we both rather like. However it was late afternoon at the time and they weren't open so we sailed on upwards, promising ourselves a drink here on the way back. Timing just isn't our thing obviously as it was 10.30am when we went down past it this morning - I had been prepared enough to get our tankards out so that we could get a drink and be on our way but once again they weren't open.... plus the Bear Arse was sold out.

 

The last 3 pictures I've tried to upload have all failed for some reason - I don't know why but obviously I'm not intended to put any more on this today. Better luck tomorrow when we will be somewhere south of Nantwich hopefully, back on the Shroppie.