We are now at Market Drayton and moored just before bridge 63. The last few days have been boating at its best - glorious sunshine with Anne's cousin Helen and husband Mervyn helping us through 13 of the 15 Audlem locks. Its now day 37 (not counting the trip back home) and we have covered 126 locks and 227 miles.
Audlem is a great boating village with all the facilities you require plus a very good craft, boat and train bookshop in the mill next to The Shroppie Fly pub. Market Drayton on the other hand still has many closed shops and was very quiet today (Saturday afternoon) but the coffee in Jones's was excellent.
Although I said the weather has been good it was a bit chilly this morning when we left our mooring just above bridge 76 which required fleeces on and off as the sun came and went.
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Anne looked up from reading and was very concerned that Reuban was trying to get into the cratch
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| The culprit was in fact a narrow beam Dutch barge- it is in fact only 7ft wide |
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| Another one of those strange craft on the canals- this time its a coracle. |
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| This was our lovely mooring above bridge76/lock 3 of the Audlem flight- no road or train only birds-heaven |
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| The next flight of locks going towards Market Drayton from Audlem is the Adderley flight which is in a lovely setting in open countryside. |
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| Looking down Audlem flight from bridge 77 - 5 locks visible of the 15 in total |
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| I just love these iron plates that protect the bridge brickwork from the old horse drawn working boats. The ropes have worn these grooves over many years - just think how many boats must have passed by to produce this result . |
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| The Audlem crew of Anne, Mervyn and Helen |
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| Another lovely cottage as you go up Audlem flight |
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| The bye washes on theses flights produce some very strong cross flows as you enter the locks. They make for some very hard work to get the boat lined up so that you don't hit the side walls. I am sure Thomas Telford who built the canal had future boaters in mind and purposely built them to keep us on our toes. |
And to finish with a couple of boat names to ponder over!
