A longer day

We ended up doing much longer than planned yesterday for reasons I shall explain later. Setting off from Whitchurch the canal enters a very remote phase as it skirts along the Welsh border. With no locks for the next twenty miles you would be forgiven for thinking that it was going to be easy going but that would be to ignore these.

Put your back into it!

Windlass operated lift bridges proliferate here and they can be hard work (not for me, obviously!). You have to cross the bridge from the towpath side, raise it then lower it as your boat passes so that you can rejoin your boat. Or that's the supposed method of operation. 

At the first bridge we encountered a holiday boat was coming through towards us. As it passed under the bridge the winder jumped onto the side of the boat midships, slipped and almost fell off then just managed to crab back to the stern deck before getting guillotined between the underside of the bridge and the boat roof.

"Is there anyone still at the bridge?", asked Elaine as we passed each other.

"No, we've left it open for you", was the reply.

"Then how the hell do I get across to lower it?", asked Elaine (it wasn't the bridge in the photo with a nice landing area opposite the towpath).

"Oh, er.....", was the reply.

I managed to get close enough to the moored boats at the bridge that Elaine could jump for it and she lowered it whilst chatting to a local boater about idiot holidaymakers. Next thing, she runs over, grabs my phone telling me to hold on a minute and goes back over the bridge with her new friend.

She returned with photos of a nesting duck, something we here never seen so far.

Blurred - sorry!

We proceeded, with the intention of mooring down the Prees Branch, a mile long offshoot the "makes a satisfying diversion from the main canal, often used by discerning boaters for overnight moorings" according to our guide book. Well, I'm nothing if not discerning so down we went.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is the Prees Branch (admittedly, the worst part)

Seriously, it's barely wider than the boat and I've had deeper baths than this! Amazingly, there is Wixhall Marina at the bottom so we turned straight around and got back on the main line, a diversion that added an extra ninety minutes to our day.

Much better!

We've moved a little bit closer to Ellesmere now having stayed at Bettisfield last night. We are just past the village of Balmer Heath which is actually back in England (I think). Took us a while to get a Sky signal through the trees but all done now. Of course, no sooner do we tie up than another boat pulls in right next to us. Hopefully, they will move on after lunch and leave us alone again!