July Holiday–Day #3

Monday 14th July

We started the day by boiling a kettle of water for our ‘quiz buddies’ whose gas had let them down. We then waved them farewell having taken their rubbish aboard to dump along with ours in the skip at the sani-station on t’other side of canal. Into the arm at Ellesmere and Graham did a car shuffle while I went into Tesco to re-provision.

Having seen other boaters go past with laden trollies, I did the polite thing and asked at customer services – knowing that there was a magnetic strip gizmo at Tescos perimeter to stop trollies leaving. A very sour faced lass informed me that I could not take a trolley to my boat. She said that she could look after my shopping while I did several delivery trips. In 30 degrees I thought not! I told her there was no way that I would be able to carry a case of wine (implication only dear reader) but she just shrugged and muttered “Oh well”

Back to Jannock and I engineered my own trolley from our folding sack truck and a laundry bin. Back to Tesco where I asked Ms Sour Face if she would keep an eye on it as I couldn’t manage ‘techno-shopper’ and a Tesco trolley around the store. She looked about her and then said that there wasn’t really room  . . . . . but you would have looked after a larger trolley full of purchases hun!

So – if you want a big shop at Ellesmere Tesco then take :-

a. A big enough trolley of your own

b. Some strapping crew.

c. As I suggested to Ms Sour Face, arrange a home delivery on line and a Tesco employee will deliver it to your boat. (OK, I know that costs extra)

When Graham had returned and we were preparing to leave – another shopper came past pushing a laden trolley. You can make up your own moral to this tale.

Ellesmere is a lovely little town and well worth a visit, other supermarkets are available for the smaller shop. The butcher and bakery come highly recommended, as does the Red Lion a little way out from the centre of town towards the Mere. Their food was very good – a huge mixed grill was considered to be enough for the next 2 days by our quiz buddies. A tenner I believe.

We winded at the top of the arm – just, thanks to the boats moored at the turning point, and then made our way to Blake Mere. We have often thought that it would be a lovely place to stop-over but it has always been full in the past. Today it was just for us for the most part. We set our tables and chairs in the shade and had lunch followed by a stroll around the Mere. The sky started to cloud over so we set off at about 2:30 and continued on to Tilstock Park where we moored for the night on S.U.C.S. 48hr moorings at 5:30. Near Bettisfield we spotted this lovely little steam launch moored outside a chalet – lovely!

The fridge appears to really appreciate the new ‘high capacity’ wiring Graham installed on Saturday as the amount of power it uses overnight has halved.

Brenda