Sunday 27 December 2009

New Year Cruise - Day Two

A real mixed bag of weather today, everything from winter sunshine to very cold rain showers, and the odd hail stone. We set off at 8.45, heading north. I have to admit that this is not my favourite section of the Shroppie. There are miles of moored boats, which makes progress rather slow, and much of the canal is in a straight line. However, the old Cadbury factory at Knighton looked lovely in the sunshine, and as we passed Goldstone Wharf a man on a moored boat called Andante asked if we were the Debdale bloggers.



The canal was mostly liquid, although there were plenty of sheets of ice floating in the water. They seemed to collect at bridge holes. The lock sides of the top two Tyrley Locks were like skating rinks, and I couldn't even get enough grip to properly close the top gate of Lock 2.

We stopped for water at Market Drayton, and as it was 1pm had lunch while the tank filled. We carried on for another hour or so, to the moorings at the top of the Adderley Locks. It's a nice spot, but we're a good eighteen inches out from the edge, thanks to the famous Shroppie Shelf. Once moored, I made some pastry, which I turned into mince pies. Although I'd remembered cutters and a pie tin, I hadn;t brought a rolling pin, so I improvised and used an empty wine bottle. Thank goodness there was one to hand!

14 miles, 5 locks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A full wine bottle works even better as a rolling pin, but an unregarded and full wine bottle on a narrowboat - that's just crazy talk :-)

Sue, Indigo Dream

ps. Adrian, we only take the pee because we love you so much - please forgive us....

Halfie said...

Adam, I'm interested in the amount of ice on the Shroppie as my brother David went up to Shadow yesterday (Sunday). The boat is moored at Tattenhall Marina, and we couldn't find out if it was frozen in before David bought his train tickets. I'm rather suspecting that he and his son will have an interesting few days! And, no, I haven't heard from them yet.