Shebdon Wharf Sunday 2 April 2017

As it wasn't raining this morning and being the sad person that I am I decided to measure just how far from the bank we were last night. The answer in old money was 20" and one end and 30" at the other. The strange thing is we didn't bump or grind one all the time we were here, even with the locks being used and 3 boats passing.

Another small puzzle yesterday was all these white sticks in the towpath, all evenly spaced out. I wonder if there could be a fisherman sitting in front of each one now. We were to see a lot more of them as we travelled along today, they are just pieces of garden cain painted white. We wondered if the off side long term moorings in Market Drayton would be full now, but a lot of the pontoons still require attention but they are carrying out a major dredging project between them as you can see by some of the mud left on the pontoons.

We stopped to fill with water in town and while we were there a Swan was giving a pair of Mallards a real hard time, his wife was sitting on the nest but the Cobb seamed to be able to identify this particular pair that annoyed him even if they where nowhere near his nest and he completely ignored all the rest on that section of canal.

Just before we came to the winding hole just below Tyrley Locks we met a Narrowboat carrying out training, he gave me the good news we had a good flight of locks ahead, all were with us. By the winding hole this character was fishing, but I don't think he caught much!

We met two boats in the flight which didn't hold us up, the second a hire boat working their first lot of locks, when we reached the top lock it was full, we only passed them between the second and third, so I guess they thought they had to refill it when they left.

Tyrley Wharf at the top of the flight was looking fine in the morning sunshine, yes the sun was shining today.As we entered Woodseaves Cutting I noticed that there is a speed restriction on this section, I have never noticed this before, I think the reason I have never noticed is there doesn't appear to be a sign if you are heading North.

The photo below may not look anything special, just two people looking over the bridge down at the canal and a cat walking along the parapet. When I took the photo I thought it was a small dog which caught my eye, O and the bridge is about 60 feet above the canal so it the cat jumped the wrong way he had plenty of time to get his paws under him.

We carried on to moor for the night on the 5 day moorings at Shebdon Wharf, there use to be a pub here below the aqueduct called the Wharf Inn, but its now a private residence.

Today's Journey

10.7 miles and 5 locks in 5 hours