Llangollen trip day#16

Sunday 28th May 2023

We had a late start this morning to allow for a cooked breakfast. We then descended the two Swanley locks and made our way to Hurleston where we filled the water tank and dumped our rubbish before joining the chaos at the four locks.

 

Whilst waiting above the top lock, Brenda observed a chap who got out of his van and came to the lock-side. He then returned to his van and extracted a suitcase (with airline luggage tags on it) and lugged it across the lock bridge to the cottage opposite. He went through the gate and knocked the door. A few minutes later he dragged his case back across the lock again, loaded it into his van and drove off. It must have been the most complicated ‘wrong address’ we’ve ever seen.

 

Locking down the four locks was difficult due to low water levels in the pounds and the fact that one ascending hire crew had actually ‘turned’ a lock in front of a descending boat. This meant that there were two ascending boats in the same pound at the same time.

 

Onto the Shropshire Union canal and heading North to Barbridge junction we followed a very slow boat who eventually pulled over to visit The Barbridge Inn. We then turned right at the junction onto the Middlewich branch .

Graham spotted this Crow taking a bath just below Cholmondeston lock - never seen that before!

We finally arrived in Middlewich about 5pm and moored, after a bit of reversing, just before bridge 28 as all other spaces nearer the junction were taken. With stocks low until tomorrow we decided on a Chinese take-away from the @Paragon Cantonese take-away’. Their bargain box 2 was sufficient food for the two of us and included complimentary prawn crackers. We also purchased another two main dishes to have tomorrow as well. Very good quality and excellent portion sizes – all at prices much cheaper than us ‘Southerners’ are used to. Recommended!

G&B