Maesbury Marsh

The lock keeper arrived a little after half eight and the Volockie just before nine. Officially we were first in the queue but as I didn’t moor on the lock mooring we now had a boat ahead of us. The chap from the boat came and asked if I wanted to go first but I said as he is there he may as well go. I was expecting the lock keeper to put two down and then two up, but there was no one waiting to come up so we just followed down.
One of the houses on the offside going down the flight has a sunken garden with a  model viaduct crossing it with a railway line on it.

Not sure if it was the bottom or one from bottom locks that has a good leak coming through the wall which will wet the bows of boats going up or maybe the steerer coming down.

As we left the flight, the Volockie was on the bottom lock to control the traffic coming up a cruiser turned up to ascend.
The Graham Palmer memorial stone now has an etched metal plate covering where his shone relief was vandalised/damaged.

On the offside of the canal there is a lot of damage where trees have grown in the shallow soil above the liner and then blown over in high winds, this has completely ripped up the mesh supporting the concrete covering that was there to protect the membrane.

Looking at the size of these nesting boxes the Blue Tits are a dam sight bigger that the ones we get at home.

My original plan was to stop at Queens Head for the night and go to the pub there, there was only the boat we let go first moored up so plenty of room, but the decision was made to carry on to the end. Dropping through Aston Locks it looks like someone has strapped to a standstill a bit too abruptly.

We arrived at Maesbury Mash and the 48 hr moorings were just about full, we managed to get on the end and the bows moored with a chain, but since we have been here a couple of boats have left. We are moored almost opposite this building, I don’t know what it is yet but I may find out.

Tonight we plan to eat at The Navigation Inn, it’s lucky we didn’t come yesterday as they only open half the week. It has some good reports on Trip Adviser so we will see.

Todays Journey

6¼ miles 8 locks in 3½ hours.