A short cruise from Ellesmere

 Monday 3^rd June; Ellesmere to below New Marton locks

After yesterday’s lovely sunshine, it was rather a disappointment to see low cloud this morning.  As Jess and I got back from her early morning wee it was drizzling lightly.  After breakfast I boiled up the chicken carcase from last night for stock, and then, as it would be a while before we got to another CRT rubbish point, Jess and I went for a walk to take the bones to the bins.  The peacock I had heard yesterday as we watered up was strutting about on the other side of the canal.

We walked round to deal with the rubbish, then went up the arm to visit the town centre.  Somehow Jess’s disc had come off her collar, so I wanted to see what the pet shop could do, seeing as there is now a legal requirement for dogs to have identification on their person.  There is no longer an engraver in the town to get a proper disc, but I got a temporary replacement - an aluminium tube containing a bit of paper.  Probably more reliable than a piece of paper sellotaped to her collar.  There was a dog-friendly shop and café called Moolah, where I got some nice snacks for lunch, at the other end of town from Vermeulen’s bakery, which I didn’t go into.  On the way back to the boat we passed an object on the Ellesmere sculpture trail.

It looks like the upturned bow of a narrowboat.  Here is a detail of the inside, decorated tiles with a couple of photos inset - one of a tunnel portal, and one of the old BW yard opposite, probably long before the days of BW.  I didn't hang about, it was drizzling again..

Back at the boat once more, we drank coffee and read yesterday’s paper till lunchtime, then set off about one o’clock.  For a while it was warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but then the cloud came over again.  The canal follows a winding course round Val Hill, and is reminiscent of parts of the South Oxford.  There was a farm with holiday lodges and a flock of pretty little black sheep.

We passed Frankton Junction, where everything was quiet at this time of day – the locks down onto the Monty are restricted to morning opening only, and you have to book passage.  The towpath switches sides after the junction, and for quite a stretch the walking must be challenging - the towpath is very narrow, the edge poor and the hedge extremely overgrown.  

If the weather is wet you would be battling through where the nettle and grasses had fallen over with the rain.

Towpath?  what towpath?

We didn’t fancy going up the New Marton locks today so pulled in a few hundred yards before them.

If I'm not getting a walk I'm going to see if it's tea-time

Several hire boats came by after that, some just starting out from the hire base at Maestermyn Wharf, but it was generally very quiet.  Chicken pie for tea.

5 miles