And the pellets rained down.

 2nd November

The curtains were drawn back and what a wonder to behold. Photos had to be taken so I went out in my dressing gown and apologies to anyone awake early seeing a lady in a state of undress but it just had to be done.

 Once the mist had lifted we set off through the bridge 'ole to New Marton top lock. Meeting a boat coming toward us, it stood to reason they would be in our favour. No wind at all so none of the fight to keep the boat on the landing. With just those two locks to do, the windlass was stored away, the sun hat and sunglasses donned, well they had to be because the sun was that low on the horizon that the glare from the water and solar panels made seeing ahead difficult.

Plenty of water lying in the fields.

 

Hardly a boat met today, although there are still hire boats about. In fact three Whittington Wharf boats passed us with headlights ablaze at about 6 pm last night. Probably having had a late handover by the hire company and wanted to get the locks under their belt.

Today Ian did most of the steering and I got to finally snap away at some wildlife. This raptor was seen in the distance. In fact, it took a while for it to register that this was a bird of prey 'cos it was that far away. Now correct me if I'm wrong but I think it is a female Sparrowhawk. The images of Sparrowhawks seen on the web shows some with a brown chest and some with grey. I'm hoping for once that I'm right, but no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong (Paul?) (yep I was wrong again! Thank you Paul. It is a Buzzard.)

And this was with a 300 mm zoom

And cropped

 

 At Ellesmere we noticed only one space to be available. There may have been some down the arm, but not wanting to risk losing that space, we quickly put some water in the tank at the facilities before reversing back to that mooring spot. 

 3rd November

The first stop on leaving Ellesmere was a rubbish dump at the facilities. It had been forgotten yesterday so with bag in hand Ian jumped off the bow as I passed the first bollard, ran to the bins and by the time the stern of FS was nearly at the end of the last bollard, the deed was done and Ian had leapt back on board. A real time saver but could only be done if no other boat was there. 

Gorgeous day, sunny, not even a breeze but was a tad chilly. 

 

Twas noisy though, gun shots could be heard in the distance and the closer we got to the Meres the louder they became. And then we were pelted with shot. It came raining down on the top of FS and thank goodness both of us were wearing hats. I was not impressed! I took two videos and I swear you can just about hear those pellets bouncing of FS's cabin top on the first one.

 

 

A chap with his two labs were by the water's edge, obviously there to retrieve any dead Pheasants that fell in the canal. I told him in no uncertain terms what I thought about being shot at. He apologised but surely there must be something in the Game Act that stops these kind of shootings over public areas. 

Anyway I was very glad to steer FS out of the danger zone. I do feel sorry for those Pheasants, hope desperately that some will get away, but it is game season after all.

Blake Mere. It was around the next bend that the shoot was taking place.

There is a stretch of canal after Bettisfield that is long and straight. In fact we call it the straight mile, although it is actually longer. Ian was still convinced the engine was sick, occasionally on tick over she sounds if she is about to stall, so he decided to open her up a tad and increase the engine revs to see if he could 'blow away' the cobwebs. Well of course it didn't work, she needs attention, at 15 years I'm not surprised. The Garmin showed a speed of 4.5 mph so he quickly knocked back the revs to 4mph.

At the end is the Prees branch, another new waterway for us. So many times the Llangollen canal has been travelled in the past 10 years but we have never turned along this branch.  A big Marina is at the terminus and we found out just recently that Anglo Welsh has a fleet of hire boats there so we decided to have a look. Two lift bridges to do and the last section of this waterway was narrow. I winded FS at the marina entrance and like all marinas there is always a breeze to either help or hinder. This time it helped to do the turn but then pinned Fs on the towpath cladding once around. More paint off the gunwales!

Such a lovely mooring after the lift bridge, we decided to stop for lunch and then couldn't be bothered to move again. We have also realised that we have loads of time (48 days) before we need to be in Milton Keynes. Our plan to go to Birmingham is scuppered due to stoppages so now we plan to spend time on the Ashby. First though, get through Baddiley locks before the stoppage starts on the 8th.

And wildlife. A bit of a game bird theme?