Some days we don’t have reliable internet on board, so we’re doing a combined post today.

We set off from our mooring spot in Ellesmere at 7:30 on Wednesday. Our morning routine has been to wake up at 7 or 8 and set off as soon as we are dressed. I make the first round of tea while John drives, and we both sip tea on the back deck of the boat as we chug along. After an hour or 2 we’ll pull over and tie up for breakfast on the boat – sometimes bacon, eggs and toast, or maybe just granola and yogurt. And another cup of tea – of course!

This morning was the coldest so far. We both had to duck back into the boat to add an extra layer of clothes. It was overcast and windy for most of the day but we had plenty to keep us busy with 10 locks and a stop at a neat nature tower.

First the nature tower. Mammoth Tower was built to show how deep the peat bog used to be. Now the bog is about at the level of the canal, but 150 years ago it was about 15 feet higher. When the canal and railroad went in, the bog was drained (peat is 90% water), and peat was harvested for commercial purposes. There is an effort underway to restore the peat bogs. And yes, mammoths roamed here.

Moving on down the canal, we hit our first set of locks for the day. These 3 locks are called a staircase, because 1 drops directly into the next, allowing for a large drop in a short distance. Luckily, we had volunteer lock-keepers on hand to orchestrate the proper opening and closing of gates.

After our last lock for the day we found a secluded stretch of canal for our nightly mooring. By that time the wind had pick up and was pushing the boat across the canal. It took a fair bit of John’s strength to pull the boat to the canal side. While we were getting ours under control, a boat coming towards us stopped and had the wind push them into a shallow spot in the canal. Luckily, they were able to do a little back and forth action to get back into the channel. It sounded like they had a more exciting day than us – one of the boaters told us he had fallen into the canal earlier in the day. Oops!

Another quiet evening on board with our nightly game of cribbage. I was able to tie the game score at 3-3!

We woke to a bright, sunny morning on Thursday. The weather isn’t looking good later in the week, so we decided we would have a long day on the canal today. It was still pretty chilly, but the sun felt nice and warm.

We finished out the Llangollen Canal and turned onto the Shropshire Union Canal heading to the town of Chester. The final stretch of the Llangollen contains 9 locks along more picturesque countryside. There were a few more little villages and clusters of houses here, but still many big farm spreads. The building construction is so different here – even the barns are brick!

The locks were close enough together that I walked between them on the tow path. Spending all day on the boat makes it hard to get your steps in, and it was a nice morning to walk. We went through most of these with another boat close behind, so we shared some of the lock work. It’s a nice way to chat with other folks on the canal.

Here we’re going to play a game of “find the boat in the lock”. 😁

The Shropshire Union Canal is a larger canal than the Llangollen, and the locks can accommodate 2 boats at a time. The first set for us was a staircase with 2 locks. There was a boat coming up and we were going down. Luckily, the other folks had been through this lock many times (there was no lock-keeper here), and they showed us how both boats go into their respective locks and pass halfway through. We were in the full upper lock and they were in the empty lower lock. We open the middle gates and the water level evened out. We drove past each other, then we dropped our water level and drove out and they raised theirs and drove out. It was pretty neat!

A few more locks and we made our stop for the night. But look, there’s a castle up on that hill! Beeston Castle, built in the 1200’s is just ruins now, but a very impressive site. We hiked up from the canal, exercising our “right to ramble” (public paths crisscrossing private farmland). The museum gift shop was offering tastes of mead and ginger wine (made exclusively for the English Heritage organization), and we’re now working our way through a bottle of the wine on the boat. We do like ginger!

And a lovely sunset to finish off the night!