England - August 4, 2014

The night could have been quieter.  Revelers from the pub didn’t realize (or care) that their loud conversations on the tow path were about 5 feet from my bed.  But, once asleep, all was well.

Shortly after setting off a bit after 9 a.m. we reached the Wharton’s Bridge Lock where several of us disembarked in order to walk to the next lock, about a mile away.  I started off first but ended up behind the others as I walked very slowly and carefully.  This is the longest walk/most exercise I’ve had since my back injury 3 weeks ago.  Along the way I met up and chatted with a man with two dogs who turned out to be an Anglican priest so we had a brief conversation about churches.

The Beeston Iron Lock is supposedly wide enough to go through doubled up, but the sign did indicate there might be difficulties – and there were.  It was a struggle getting both Duke and Duchess in the lock, but the crew worked valiantly and successfully.  Once through, I boarded once again happy to be a passenger (and sitting).

Immediately following the Beeston Iron Lock was the Beeston Stone Lock (yep – one was made of iron, one stone).  We had to go single file for a while as one of the bridge holes was too narrow but then were side by side until after lunch as we prepared to go onto the Llangollen Canal which is much narrower and where the locks are only 7 feet wide instead of the 14 feet on the Shropshire Union Canal.  




The dog Meg, while fairly large, loves people and considers herself a lap dog.  Here she’s sitting on Tony’s lap.

When one is riding on the butty, the view ahead is of the back of the Duke and Andy steering.

As we made the right turn into the canal we could see the series of four locks  ahead in quick succession.  They weren’t staircase locks, because there were pools in between, but they involved as much work.

Because the butty has no engine, it had to be pulled by hand into and out of each lock, a lot of effort, usually by Tom who did most of the pulling.  Fortunately the weather was gorgeous – sunny and warm, perhaps a little too warm (unusual for England).  A few of the passengers had the opportunity to open or close a gate since the two boats take a lot of staff to lock through separately as we will be doing from now on.  Barrie worked with Rosie to close the paddles (stop the water) while Estelle and I helped close lock gates.

By the time we locked both boats through the four locks, it was 4:30 p.m., past time for tea!  We moored along a very quiet, rural, section of canal between two bridges where we would stay for the night. 

The tea included sponge cake, quite impressive looking, and a visit from a juvenile swan who was a bit aggressive and nasty.

While drinking a cider sitting on the shore and recovering from the hot afternoon, the sun disappeared, and the temperature chilled a bit.  Conversation after dinner lasted until almost 9:30 when it was time to get to bed.  The end of another fun day on the canals.