I'm afraid all of the pictures this week are of the Montgomery canal. I didn't take any after we left, because my camera jammed! I hope to get it repaired when we're in Birmingham next week.

August 3rd--8th August

When you want to go down the Montgomery Canal, you have to ring a British Waterways number in Northwich to book a passage through the locks. The locks are open between 12.00 and 2.00 each day, and there is a lock keeper there to assist you through. Then the locks are padlocked until the next day, to prevent anyone from operating them themselves. So we booked to go down on August 3rd, and Colin the lockie let us down the locks and we were back in the peace and quiet of the beautiful Montgomery Canal. Only a few boats go down or up each day and no one is allowed to stay longer than a fortnight, so it is really quiet and relaxing.

First we stopped at the Weston Arm services near the bottom of the locks and washed the boat to get the bird droppings off, and then we set off slowly along the canal. There is a speed limit of two or three miles per hour, depending on which part of the canal you're on, so it's just perfect idling along. There aren't a lot of places to choose from to moor, as a lot of the bank has been rebuilt with gabion baskets (large wire cages full of stones) and you aren't allowed to moor there. But we know the canal fairly well now and so knew where we would moor each night.

The first night we moored between locks one and two of the Aston Locks, and then the next day went on to moor at Maesbury, almost at the end of the navigable part, for two nights. I had hoped I might be able to use the wifi at the Post office there. I went in and paid (it's just a contribution towards the local community funds) but the boat was too far away to pick it up, so I took my computer in to the Post Office and sat in there. It's not a conventional PO, it has a cafe and a strong relationship with the local community. In fact it was built with the the help of an EU grant to act as a focus for the area. There is also a self catering unit upstairs.

Read about it here

After the busyness of the time in the dry dock, it was good to be able to relax and do very little. We went to the Navigation Inn for a meal, and it was as good as ever. |

Read about it here

We had booked to leave the Monty on Thursday, the 6th, but we were enjoying it all so much, we decided to stay another two nights. Trev rang the Northwich office and changed our booking to go back up through the locks. This really pleased us as we didn't want to leave ever!

We left Maesbury on the Thursday, went to the end of the navigable canal at gronwen, winded and travelled back up the canal towards Frankton Locks. We moored up again at Aston Locks and went to the Queen's Head pub. We had another excellent meal there, and met some other boaters and chatted with them for an hour or so. Our last night on the Montgomery was spent at Perry Aqueduct. This is an odd mooring, in fact we're not sure if it is really a mooring at all. There are bollards on the offside and no one about for miles. "This will be a really peaceful place to stay" said Trev. As we moored up, a tractor in the field below was busy turning the hay to dry it, a combine harvester was working in another field and then a helicopter flew overhead! The combine harvester worked all evening, and switched on its headlights when it got dark, but it did quieten down eventually. We took advantage of the weather and a stone kerb to have a BBQ. A lovely end to our Monty trip.

Saturday, 8th, August
We set off for Frankton Locks and James, the weekend lockie let us through. We turned right for Ellesmere, where we went into in the Ellesmere Arm to shop at the new Tesco. Then we had a rather interesting experience. We went down to the far end of the Ellesmere Arm, which is a cul-de-sac, to turn and come back up. It's a pretty tight turn here for a 70' boat, but we have learnt how to do it. I usually get off the boat with the front rope and haul us round as it's so tight. We accomplished this and went slowly back up the arm to rejoin the main canal. But a boat, which had been moored in front of us, had decided that it would back all the way up to the main canal--well its steerer had decided. It was only a thirty-five footer and we couldn't understand why on earth they hadn't gone down to the winding hole at the bottom, as we had done. However, each to their own--whatever turns your crank, as my Canadian niece would say--and so we slowly followed the boat along the arm. But, of course, boats never go backwards in a straight line, there is no steering when you reverse. The only way you can do it is to go backwards, then when the boat starts to go all over the place, you put it into forward and straighten up and then try again. This lady didn't quite seem to have the hang of it and she was all over the place, at right angles to the bank, scraping along other people's boats--boaters' heads were popping out as she pursued her route, and it got worse. She got very het up and was revving the engine for all it was worth. We just followed her very slowly, and then she pulled into the bank on the offside and called us on.

As we passed, she said, "I couldn't go in the winding hole because you were in there. "Yes," we said, "We were turning round!" "Oh I didn't know what you were doing," she said, "You seemed to be there for such a long time." "We were turning round," I said. "Well I didn't know what you were doing," she said, "So I decided to back up." As we passed her, the predictable happened; the water displacement of our boat dragged her towards us and she hit us, only she was quite sure we'd done it on purpose, and seemed to have no idea that this was going to happen and had done nothing to hold her boat into the side. "That was unnecessary!" she said!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "You should have stayed in Braunston!" (We have 'Braunston' painted on the outside of our boat.) At this point we realised we were dealing with something outisde our ken, so moved swiftly on without further ado! One meets a wide variety of boaters on the canal! We stayed overnight at Bettisfield.

Sunday, 9th August
This morning we joined a veritable convoy of boats going towards Whitchurch. There were six of us in a line moving along, but it was rather amusing, as there are quite a few lift bridges along here. At each lift bridge, the front boat had to stop and lift the bridge and we all passed through and thanked the bridge opener. Of course, this meant that the one who had been in front and had stopped to open the brdige was now last! By the time we got to Grindley Brook locks, we were at the front! All of the boats in front had taken a turn at opening the bridges and then each one had ended up at the end of the line! I don't think we were very popular, actually! C'est la vie..........

There was only one boat in front of us waiting to go down at Grindley Brook locks, but there were twelve waiting to come up So the lockie let four up and then three of us went down. When we got to the bottom, there was a queue of twenty boats waiting to come up! We went through Wrenbury, down the three Baddiley locks and then moored up for the night. We'd had a long day, but we have a long way to go. We need to be in Warwick by August 23rd.

Monday, 10th August
Today we did the two Swanley locks, where we saw Alan on "Shush" moored in Swanley Bridge Marina. We waved to each other, but carried on to the Hurleston Flight. There were plenty of boats coming up, but only us going down, so we were soon through the locks and down to the junction with the Shropshire Union canal. Here we turned right to arrive in Nantwich in a couple of miles. There was no mooring befrore the aqueduct, but we found a spot a little further on and moored up for the night. We walked down to Morrison's to shop and then found a new Italian restaurant, well, new to us, and had a lovely meal there. The service and food were excellent and certainly on our list to visit again.

Read about it here

Tuesday 11th August
We only went a short distance today, and moored up above Hack Green Locks. The weather was lovely again, so we had a BBQ--we have to strike whilst the iron's hot, or at least when the sun is out, and we enjoyed the evening.

Wednesday, 12th August
The Glorious Twelfth today--unless you're a grouse........ We made up for yesterday's laziness by doing a long day today. We did the fifteen locks of the Audlem flight, the five locks of the Adderley flight and moored up in Market Drayton. It was a long day, but we'd made good progress and the weather was kind, so it was worth getting a move on.

Thursday, 13th August
Today we were really, really lucky. We left Market Drayton and queued up to go up the Tyrley flight--that wasn't the lucky bit, that comes later! There were boats coming down the flight too, and so we were soon through the locks and off along Woodseaves Cutting--a long narrow rather gloomy cutting with little sunlight, though with interesting wildflowers and ferns. Trev nearly moored up near bridge 46, one of our favourite moorings out in the country, very peaceful, but as the weather was good he decided to keep going. As we approached Shebdon Embankment, we passed some BW workmen working on the towpath. They appeared to be throwing sods of clay into the water. "That's odd," I said to Trev. "They could do with dredging the canal here, rather than filling it up."

We carried on hoping to moor on the new moorings on Shebdon Embankment but there was no space so we carried on and eventually managed to moor near the Anchor pub. We've never stopped here before, but there was a space and we'd had enough for one day. Now, the first piece of luck was that the Mikron Theatre Group was performing in the pub garden, so we went and watched them They are a group of four actors who travel the canals in a narrowboat performing at a different pub each evening. They were really good, and we enjoyed it. The Anchor pub is in a time warp, the only food served is crisps and nuts and it's rather like sitting in someone's front room when you're in the bar. Trev gave me a description of the men's toilet; I'll save you the details except to say that there was a bench along one wall, opposite the urinals, as though one was expected to sit and watch!!!!!! The second bit of luck we didn't find out about until the next day...........

This is the Mikron Theatre's website

Friday, 14th August
As we were getting ready to leave, the man on the boat in front told Trev there had been a breach just a little further back along the canal at Shebdon Embankment, and the canal was closed there until further notice! That was where we had seen the BW men working. We had nearly stopped to moor up just before there! If we had, we would still be there. What a bit of luck. The canal is still closed as I write, and it is expected to

We continued on along the canal and stopped at Norbury Junction for water. We also went over to the cafe at the wharf and had a toastie and a coffee, which made a pleasant interlude, then off again, to moor up in Gnosall--pronounced Know-sull. We went for a meal at the Navigation, but it was disappointing. I ordered cold home baked ham, but I had to leave it, I couldn't cut it. So that pub is definitely not on our list to revisit.

Saturday, 15th August
Today saw us dashing down to Turner's garage at Wheaton Aston before they closed at 2.00 p.m, to buy the cheapest diesel on the cut. It was 49.9p per litre, the cheapest anywhere. And we needed a lot! We must have been down to the last teacupful as we took on just over 200 litres. Now we're full to the brim. We stayed overnight in Wheaton Aston and Trev's cousin Ann and her husband Graham came to see us. We had an excellent meal at the Hartley Arms, right by the canal.

Sunday, 16th August
Just a short trip today. We went a couple of miles along the canal and moored in Brewood. We're going to have lunch with Brenda, a friend who lives in the village. We took about an hour to do the Wheaton Aston lock and to moor up, and then spent the day with Brenda.

SummerCruise 2009

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