Lambs can swim

Wednesday 12^th June; bridge 25 to below Baddiley locks, bridge 12

The sun was shining, though unfortunately from behind the hedge first thing.  Skylarks were singing in the clear blue sky as we set off around our usual time or 9.30.  Though the wind was still cold, in spite of the sun, Jess and I had a lovely walk down to Marbury lock, surrounded by birdsong – sedge warblers and a redstart (said the Merlin app) as well as all the usual little birds.  A boat had just come up Marbury lock, so no hanging about waiting for it to fill today.

Straight in

It wasn’t far to Wrenbury Frith lift bridge, where I was keen to stop for a while at the little garden centre.

The boat coming towards the bridge kindly opened it and waved us through, and we were soon tied up a little way beyond it.  Dave went to investigate the café, which seems to do a variety of breakfasts – I have to say they looked delicious and people clearly make a point of visiting.  I was the only person buying plants though – I meant to buy one pot, but ended up with 4 …. 

It wasn’t lunchtime though, so no all-day breakfasts for us.  Wrenbury road bridge looked unusually quiet as we approached, and as I arrived to raise it with the key of power I could see the reason – an emergency road closure a little way beyond the hire base.  I let a delivery van cross before I started, but unfortunately for him, by the time he clocked that he couldn’t go the way he wanted I had started the opening procedure …  he disappeared down the long lane that runs along the offside of the canal.  In the end I only caught one cyclist and one car, both of whom arrived as I’d started the closing procedure.  We moored before the next lift bridge for a visit to the village.  We walked down to the bridge after it, no 18, and took a footpath across fields to enter the village just past the shop.  We bought a paper and then returned via the footpath from the churchyard.  I wanted to look around the church, but there was a prayer meeting going on so after a respectful pause and a look at what I could see from the back, I slipped out again.  A good thing Dave had stayed outside with Jess.

Wrenbury Church

The churchyard is large, and well-cared for.  Many of the graves, although old, are still visited as we could see from the fresh flowers on many.  It seems that several graves have multiple generations all in together.  There is still room for more graves, unlike many churchyards you see these days, and also plenty of room for wildlife.

The path rejoined the canal at Wrenbury Church Lift Bridge.  We had lunch, and before we set off again I took rubbish and a large bag of recycling across to the hire base, who were happy for me to use their bins.  Meanwhile Dave had found a rope fender, complete with rope, abandoned on the towpath. That went into the well deck before we tackled the lift bridge – another fairly easy one – and carried on down Baddiley locks, which were quite busy.  Between the second and third we had a bit of a hold-up; a lamb was swimming across the cut.  The rest of the flock were in the field next to the towpath, which was covered in sheep poo so obviously there had been several escapes before.  The lamb stood in a shallow patch by the opposite bank, bleating, as I went to check the lock while wondering who to call.  With a boat just leaving it, and another about to come in, I went back to see what was happening.  It had swum back towards the towpath, but of course as soon as a person got near it took fright, and swam away again, this time ending up merely knee deep further along by a small wood.  I tried calling the police on 101, as I thought they would know the local farmers, but couldn’t get further than selecting the force area I wanted.  Dave suggested CRT, who answered quickly and seemed to be used to this sort of thing – they took the location and said they’d pass it on the local team.  The lamb seemed to have got itself up into the woodland by now and disappeared, so I hope it was ok.  Once down the bottom Baddiley lock we carried on to get a bit closer to Swanley locks, and found a nice sunny spot past bridge 12.

Today’s booty

5½ miles, 4 locks, 3 lift bridges