Ellesmere Saturday 24 December 2016

Well storm Barbara was somewhat over rated from where we where and if I had not have heard the forecast I wouldn’t have moored up at mid day. I don’t know how the rest of you fared.

This morning while having breakfast we had a bit of rain so I set off a little before 9-30 am it full wet weather gear, however it wasn’t needed and the weather not only stayed fine all day but the morning was so calm there wasn’t a ripple on the canal.

No locks today but a few more of the lift bridges to contend with. As we passed the Prees branch there was a sign saying the towpath was close.The reason soon became obvious with major piling works taking place with some serious length piles.

Just past the junction the pilled edging is marked up as
“No mooring” for some reason.

We only saw one boat on the move and that was a hire boat just before we reached Ellesmere, the other thing we saw was a rather smart stop plank store, it would look nice in our back yard with a BBQ in it. We expected the Ellesmere Branch to be packed out as the full length is a designated a “winter mooring” but when we arrived there were probably only about 6 boats moored there and only 2 of them had winter mooring permits, so that left plenty of room for us. Tesco are located at the end of the arm which allowed us to top up on Beechams Powders, Diana already has a stinking cold so I expect I will end up with flu.

Today’s Journey  10¾ miles in 4 hours with no locks but 2 junctions and a tunnel.