Fine... Wet... Fine.....

Awoke to a fine morn, that was about 7am, then our Lawn Mowing contractor turned up to do our lawn, Towpath that is, about  8.30am, far to early to have a mower and a strimmer "Revving Out" about 10ft  from our heads and by the time the feet hit the floor it was Later and raining. Then had to wash the  grass off  the  side of the  boat. Dodged the showers and had a look in Market Drayton, nice village pretty  sleepy for  a Friday midday. Although there are several Pubs we couldn't find one that had "Sky Sports", or even a satellite dish, I suppose they know it's been invented. Wanted to watch the All Blacks V France then maybe the Lions V NSW in Aussie... Just have to listen again on Radio Sport...

Tudor House Hotel, 1653, has been a bank, bakery.....

Looking down side street to Pub....

When it's fine everyone feels like A Bunch  --   ------   -----  .......

Here's one for " Transport Boy" Paul, AKA The Manly Ferry,  A  Triumph GT6 Coupe  MK 111, a bit of E Type Jag styling  with the roof line and those Twin Pipes......

Got Out Sold by the MGBGT, and so it should have,  so  production ceased after this model... about 74...

"Leonie,  Leonie any bread for the Swans?",  "How much you want?", " You not gonna  believe me".....

Wet to My GRUTTS.......

Moved on today, warm and fine start but after an hour the rain came with a couple of down pours then patchy showers. By 3.30pm the sky as blue again.

Got talking to this "Pom" this morn he's an experienced NB owner and gave me a couple of tips on travelling down Birmingham way... Later in the day at a lock on the Audlem flight Leonie went ahead to open the paddles he said to her, "I meet your husband so I feel that I know you and I'm wet through to my undies". So MY  Grutts are OK, we actually moored up for the worst of the rain.

Where  we've come from...

Where were heading, 11 locks here, 2 prior and 5 more a mile and a  half away. 18 for a bit of a warm up..

 

 

The Cheshire farm land, a lot of Dairy farms, reminds me of the Best of Matamata farms....
The farms and bush have Oak Trees "everywhere"......

"Dog Of The Day", you see a lot of dogs on the NB,s or towpaths, some are just Mutts......

"Piece Of  C-a-" Of The Day. It was registered though, a lot in better condition aren't........

Tomorrow on with the SPF 30+........

Cruising The SHROPPIE....

Moving in a Southerly direction down the Shropshire Union Canal and its  pretty easy on the eye, farmland that's  very lush, dairy cows and a lot of activity with the farmers haulin large  trailers of chopped  grass for silage from the paddocks. They're passing through  the village roads at speed too, I'm telling  you the cars soon give way. A little rain overnight and the wind had a bit of a chill early but the sun shone later.

The Iconic canal side  pub just before the 13 locks start  in Audlem.....

Liked this one and walked through the centre  arch to take a look around, many people don't actually see the beauty, they're chapels each side and the arch leads to the cemetery....

Street in Audlem village, nice place, plenty British flags flying, photo is Shit though...

 

 

 

 

Now I thought a SECRET was something only Yourself new about, Oh and your best mate, Oh and the Sheila it happened too, but Advertise the Secret, chuck in the Secret Location, not Bloody Cricket is it??

Nantwich village had a surprisingly large variety of quality shops along narrow streets, some very old buildings that  had been well painted up..

Tomorrow we'll be Dealing to a few  locks.....

L a a z z z y y Day......

Decided yesterday that today would be a "take it Easy day", Why?, because we can. Stacked up a few ZZZ D's, talked to our son Myers in Melbourne, watched some programs of " The Block Australia" on the net on the Tablet then hit the floor running at 11.30am. Sun was shining but not as hot as last few days, took a stroll and brought a few items for sanding and painting at a hardware store then the supermarket and back to the boat, Big Day..

2ND lock down the Hurleston flight, hot and sunny, boats coming up and the Poms unashamedly getting their tops  off, males that is....Mind you one fella helping at the bottom lock had more "TiT" than a V8.....

I've Been Through The Desert  -- - ----- ---- -- ----  .

Looked like a farm type Speedway Track,  had rollers, grader etc lying around...

As far as "Leaks" go this one on the 2nd of the Grindley Staircase is right up there......Doubt weather Julian Assange could match it...

FireflyNZ cruises into the evening, warm, calm, only the sounds of the countryside,  wicked....

Approaches a Lock, not a breath of wind....



Got talking to a couple on the towpath, Tony and Florence. Tony is an Aussie who's spent a lot of time in France and Florence is all French. They were house sitting near the canal and out walking the Greyhound that went with the house/ job. They  asked questions about the NB, as we did about France, and had a look through with the idea of  maybe purchasing a boat in the future. As we about to leave an invitation for a ride with us was accepted, a couple of miles, then they could walk the dog back. Started off with an Awesome demo on "Winding" to head in the right direction, steered under 3-4 bridges with out a scrape,  answered all the questions with incredible knowledge then came to a tight RH bend with a low hanging tree over the canal." Youv'e gotta  watch the chimney on these" I said so steering to "Aim" the chimney through a gap in the branches I cut the corner and "Bellied" the boat. Stuck firm As on tree roots, DOOHH, Leonie tried reverse as I pushed with the Pole, finally got free after a big effort. First time been stuck and had to have an audience. And I didn't do it again until Two corners Later, on mud this time, Double DDOOHH.......

Tony, Florence and client on NB fireflyNZ...

Moving on tomorrow.......

 

Touring Wales....

Wev'e had some internet connection problems in area's we have passed through so the frequency of this blog has suffered. Since we arrived and left Llangollen the weather has been awesome, hot sunny days, mild evenings, even started the boat and done a few miles after dinner. Got back to Hurleston Junction and turned right, may end up in Birmingham in a couple of weeks.

The return crossing of the Aqueduct, an excellent day for drying ......


My cousin Glen who lives in Wales arranged to pick Leonie and myself up last Thursday from Ellesmere and show us a few sights of Wales. Headed to the North West coastal town of Conwy, what a great seaside town. Walked the walls of the Conwy Castle built by Edward 1. The walls were built to surround a town within and they're 1.3 kilometres in length. Edward 1 must have gone down the Job Centre and got some extra help because the castle and walls only took from 1283 to 1287 to build.

Looking back along the top of a wall with  Conwy Bay in the distance..

Main castle and there's 8 of these  towers....

Wall and round "watch towers " which had 3 floor levels in each...

Looking across the town that is now within the walls showing the distance of the wall from the castle....

Down by the seaside the smallest house in Britian and Wales, the red one...

Headed in land and that's Mount Snowdon in shadows, highest mountain in Britain and Wales, 3560 ft. There's a cog train goes to the top and a "café" a few metres from the summit....

Electric Mountain this is. During the day water is pumped to a lake on the summit then overnight it comes back down through a power station...

Part of the power station...

Saw some rock climber's, very "crumbly" looking to me...

There were two of the three, over half way up.......

The day off the boat was great, only problem was I left my camera in Glen's car. He kindly offered to deliver it next morning on his Triumph 800 Triple, another trip of  55 mins, each way. Thanks again...

Glen delivers the camera to bridge 58 on the Llangollen canal....

A bit of maintenance on this classic...

Yaketty Yakk don't Talk Back...

 Winner of the " Stubby" narrow boat of the day.....

 

 

Looking forward to more hot weather.......