Monday 30th
Those moorings outside Ellesmere Port, very nice if one can drown out the noise from the motorway nearby. Cars and lorries zooming past all night. Don't people have homes to go to!!! Normally we wouldn't even have entertained the idea of stopping at such a noisy place but yesterdays driving rain and wind encouraged us to stay. Four very bleary-eyed people stood on the towpath early this morning all blaming each other for deciding not to move on. Anyway, the banter was good-natured and by 8.15am we had untied and on our way back to Chester.
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| Leaving Ellesmere |
I didn't think I would have much to say about the journey back, it was pleasant enough apart from that incessant Pennywort heeding our progress. Merlin was lead boat and hopes were high that Merlin's passage through would disperse the weed, but no, we spent more time trying to eradicate the stuff from FS's bow by stopping and reversing, than we did on the journey down to Ellesmere.
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| Trying to shake it off |
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| Free at last |
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| And the next clump picked up |
Heavy rain has been forecast for this region later this afternoon so we wanted to be moored in plenty of time. I kept noticing strange phenomena in the clouds around the sun, Must be very cold up there with ice chrystals causing rainbow effects. The clouds also made interesting patterns, this must be one way to foretell if bad weather is coming.
After 2.30 hours we had the city of Chester in our sight.
The basin moorings had only one boat moored and smack bang in the middle so Merlin went beyond and we slotted in behind. I had a look at why the path was closed at the locks leading down to the river and why we couldn't get to the elsan Wow, was this one of those sinkholes?
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| Impressive |
The rain was not due for another 3 hours (3 pm according to the Beeb) so we decided to see some of what Chester had to offer. Had a walk through the city and found the amphitheatre and Roman garden. Part of the ancient wall was also walked before we stopped for a very late lunch at the Pied Bull. Sure enough a tad after 3 pm the rain started and so it has continued for the rest of the afternoon. It was a very fast walk back then to FS and Merlin.
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| Roman garden |
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| FS at the back of the cream coloured boat and Merlin in front. |
And seen on route,
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| Now that's what I call a good haul |
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| Why???? This gets me sooo mad! |
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| I have never seen a Coot with Angel Wing |
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| Synchronised flying |
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