On to the Llangollen

Well it's a bit late but Happy New Year everyone.

On Saturday my family visited me, it was a long drive for them and I met them as soon as they arrived and we headed off to the Shroppie Fly in Audlem for lunch, it was nice to sit down and catch up with news and get some cuddles from my granddaughter Hazel. The food was ok, not great but ok.

We all went back to the boat and I opened my Christmas presents ☺.

My daughter-in-law Natalie took this lovely
 picture of me and little Hazel,
 someone was making her happy !

It was soon time for them to head home, it was a lovely if shortish visit, hopefully next time I might be further south.

I haven't done much else, I went into Nantwich a couple of times for supplies but it rained each time so no pictures, it is a very nice town though.

The fuel boat was due to come through Wednesday morning so I requested a stop but he had a few more customers than he expected and as he passsed me late Wednesday he shouted that he was out of supplies and would be back Thursday early afternoon, he finally arrived about 4:30 so all was ok.

This morning I headed off at 10 it was very cold but dry, passing over the Nantwich aqueduct over the A534

My first stop was at the service point for the usual fill and empty, the water pressure was poor so the fill took just over an hour.

Moving on again and the first boat I met was at a narrow with moored boats either side, I had right of way but realised he wasn't slowing so I had to, he apologized saying he couldn't see me because of the moored boats and the low winter sun, it was ok, these things happen, I  just had to use a large handful of throttle in reverse to avoid contact with him, and then sort out avoiding contact with the moored boats J

I was soon arriving at Hurleston junction where the Llangollen joins the Shroppie, an interesting sharp left as you come through bridge 97 with the lock landing on the left where the bywash also is, it's plenty wide enough but I could not get round and over in one go, so a bit of reversing to get into position.

In position on lock landing

There are warnings to lift your fenders and this is why.

Not much room on the left

Not much room on the right either!

Quite tight this flight of four Hurleston locks taking you up 34ft 3inches.
It has been known for boats to get wedged in narrow locks held tight by their fenders as the waters drops away beneath them, I bet that causes the loss of few years of lifespan from the hapless boater, probably won't do it twice!

A smooth run through the four locks, two in my favour and two against due to leakage filling them up.

Looking back down the flight of four locks

It was looking a bit black over the fields and I considered stopping but decided to carry on a bit.

I then made a quick stop at Swanley Marina to purchase another Pearsons Canal Companion, this one is for Welsh Waters and is the fourth one I have bought from a series of nine, I was soon off again through the two Swanley locks.

Nice chimney on a nice house

I didn't have the chance to read the companion to get a feel of what I wanted to do so I have moored up in the countryside just after bridge 10, just me and some horses in the field opposite, lovely.

Tonights mooring

Today's Travel: 6 miles : 6 locks