Monday 23rd August
It all started off really well, the weather was fine and warm with not too much wind, when we set off for Audlem Locks. That soon changed however when, after about 3 locks, it started spitting with rain. As there is nowhere to moor between locks, until between numbers 11 and 12, we had to keep going. The rain got harder and harder until it became deluginous, a term I have invented myself! We were following 2 other boats down and there was not a sign of any coming up. That meant we all had to fill locks before we could use them and this all takes time. Eventually a boat came the other way but this proved advantageous to only the boat in front of us.
We soldiered on, getting more and more wet until we came to the 48 hour moorings between locks 11 and 12. Should we stop there? Well we would have done had we not have fallen foul of the dreaded ‘Shroppie Shelf’! This is a rocky ledge which runs under the water along some moorings and it prevents you from getting the boat right up to the bank. Ordinarily this wouldn’t matter too much as we can use a gang plank for George to reach the bank. However, in our experience of spending the night in such a mooring, every time a boat passed our boat would grind and bang on this shelf. It drives you mad, especially if boats go past in the morning before you are up!
So we gave up trying to moor there and came down lock 12 where we found an excellent mooring opposite the ‘Shroppie Fly’! As it was still raining quite hard George was showing no inclination to visit the Shroppie Fly so we went on our own. We discovered that to get there we had to cross the lock and we are not sure George would be able to do that – we may find out tomorrow! He would have been very interested in the sandwiches and chips we had I expect.
As I type Ken is trying to fish but there is a hire boat moored up opposite us and he is being plagued by children making lots of noise – ho hum! Wait! Worse than that – a folk group has just started up at the pub, oh no!
