Onto the Llangollen Canal

Lovely cruising weather as we turned into Hurleston Locks, and onto the Llangollen Canal.  Had a bit of a chat with Linda, in the lock house.  She is now the proprietor of the Cheshire Cat Narrowboats, operating out of Audlem marina.  She used to be the lock keeper at Hurleston locks.

Spectacular views looking accross to Cheshire

This is where the water from the River Dee in Llangollen ends up - at Hurleston reservoir, where it is treated, and sold to provide the drinking water to the good people of Cheshire.

This is what appears to be a rocket, sited at the rear of Swanley Marina.  We could do with something like that up in Fron, to combat speeding, crashing day boats.

This boat moored at Wrenbury Frith nursery lift bridge hasn't had a licence since 2005!

Unfortunately it was too early in the day & the Willeymoor pub hadn't yet opened it's doors.

The house at Grindley Brook bottom lock still looks unoccupied.  Reminder to self:  buy a lotto ticket.  We met up with Buffy & had a pint in the Horse & Jockey - another pub which has improved no end in the last couple of years, with a choice of 6 real ales.  Buffy's doing well, and now has a new dog "Charlie".  You may remember her last dog "Joe", a collie who was always smartly dressed in his red neckerchief, who enthusiastically escorted boats up and down Grindley Brook locks all day.

Into Grindley Brook staircase locks, with the water cascading over the top gates.  Slowly with that paddle please Dave!  Jane and Dave were busy getting things sorted out in the lock shop, which was due to open the following weekend (24th), ready for another season.

The lovely weather has certainly brought the boats out.  It's like being back on our moorings with boats going past before 7am.  I do think the Llangollen canal will be busier than usual this year.  We already have restrictions on canals "dahn saaf" in an attempt to conserve water, so I think this will mean increased boat traffic on those canals where water shortages are not a problem, like the Shroppie and the Llangollen.  We'll see...
We've seen loads of birds in the last month.  Lapwings have been doing their diving dances, and we've seen - and heard - more skylarks than we ever have.  There's more blackbirds around than you can shake a stick at, and we've also seen a few thrushes, which we haven't seen for a long time.