Waiting for the Montgomery to Reopen
February 28th--March 6thTuesday, 28th February
We stayed at Ellesmere for two nights. I went to see the optician as arranged, but she said she was too busy to see me. That wasn't very helpful, was it? We had lunch at a nice little cafe in Ellesmere, and stayed on the same mooring overnight. We had quite a lot of snow today, and everywhere looks very pretty.
Wednesday, 1st March St. David's Day
First we got rid of the rubbish at the BW site, then we set off towards Ellesmere. We bought coal at Blackwater Marina, just outside Ellesmere. We found wood beside Blake Mere, which we piled on the roof. We moored up at the charmingly named "Shop in the Garden" moorings, and had it all to ourselves. It's at the foot of a garden, and in the season the owners sell groceries etc. to passing boats, but at the moment it's closed for the winter. There's hardy anyone about on the canal, it's so nice to have it all to ourselves, but a little company would be nice!
Moored at The Shop in the Garden
5 miles
Thursday, 2nd March
When we woke up, there was a beautiful blanket of snow covering everything. We set off around eleven and did all the lift bridges to Whitchurch, of which there are quite a few. They are worked with a windlass, and they were quite stiff today, I don't know if this was caused by the cold weather. We were hoping to fill up with diesel at Viking narrowboats, just before Whitchurch, but there was no one available to serve fuel, so we shall call there tomorrow on our way back to The Montgomery Canal.
We had more snow as we came along, but it's not too cold today. just as we came in to Whitchurch there were some men chopping trees down, and they gave us some quite big logs. We're real scavengers! Trev put it on the roof, ready to saw. He really needs a chain saw, but is reluctant to try one, they're rather fierce! There was no room to moor in the Whitchurch Arm, so we moored up by the lift bridge on the canal.
In the evening we walked in to town and had a meal at the Italian Restaurant. It used to be called Tolchards, but has changed hands now, and is called Enzio. Although the food was good, it didn't have the same ambience. The previous owners made a point of coming out and talking to their guests, this time, we were served by staff who were good, but not so chatty.
Friday, 3rd March
We walked in to Whitchurch, and I was lucky enough to find a really good optician--Jane Smellie. She kindly gave up her lunch hour and gave my eyes a thorough going over. I wasn't so pleased with the news she gave me but I suppose it could have been worse. I have a detached vitreous something, but I forgot the last part! The floater in my eye is there for life, unless I'm really lucky and it goes away. So I have something like a piece of frogspawn floating around in there forever. Ms. Smellie also wrote to the eye surgeon at Shrewsbury to ask if he thinks he should see me. If I have to have treatment it will probably be laser treatment to stick it all back together! Ugh. Eye problems wasn't something I had expected in 'old age'. It's not in my family history at all. But thank you Ms. Smellie for seeing me and giving me such a complete examination.
Then we set off to be ready for the reopening of the Montgomery Canal on Monday, 6th March. We're really only marking time until then, and afterwards we shall make our way off the Llangollen Canal and back on to the main canal system. It was a really cold day and wrapped up warmly. Back through all the lift bridges, and back to the mooring at the Shop in the Garden. Trev sawed up some more logs, and we had snow again this evening. The fire roared away, the central heating was on and we were very warm.
Saturday, 4th and Sunday, 5th March
We cruised back in to Ellesmere amidst glorious snowy scenery. The meres were frozen, though not thick enough to walk on, I'm sure. We stayed in Ellesmere for two nights and had a good meal at The Black Lion.
Monday, 6th March
At last we can go down the Monty today! We were quite excited when we set off from Ellesmere, thinking of somewhere new to see. We went down the Monty in our first year when we were up here, and loved it. We moored at the top of the flight and waited for 2.30 and for the lockie to come and help us through. It seemed rather strange that there was no-one else waiting there, given that this was the first day it was open this year. I walked along to the noticeboard and read "Frankton Locks will reopen to visitors on March 18th at 12 noon". Oh no.