Nearly Ellesmere

 Today's Canals - Montgomery, Llangollen

Overnight there was heavy rain which persisted through the day. Although there were some occasions when it reduced to a fine drizzle, mostly it was proper rain.

We set off a little early to make sure we had time at Frankton to call at the service block before presenting ourselves at the flight.

The bridge at Heath House has a splendid turnover design, intended to make it easier for boatmen with horses to cross over without untying the towing rope.

We wrote about Rednal Basin on the way down but include another picture here as it is one of the few that we managed to take that shows the rain on the water.

There used to be a Keepers Bridge numbered 73 but it has long been removed. Although the plate remains here the nearby railway bridge has formally taken on that number.

The Perry Aqueduct seemed to us on the way down as  unusually substantial for this canal. We now have discovered that during the period when the canal was closed, the aqueduct collapsed (see here) and was a major project in re-opening the section from Frankton.

We continued through the Graham Palmer Lock to the service block at the Weston Arm junction. We completed the filling and emptying as speedily as we could.

As we arrived at the bottom Frankton Lock a hire boat was just coming down but after that the two lock keepers helped us through in good time with the locks all set for us.

We moored for coffee at Frankton Junction, just above the top lock. We have several things that we wanted to do - including uploading the blogs for the last couple of days - and we hoped that there might be a signal here. Initially this hope was fulfilled and we made a start but then, as the rain turned to drizzle, the signal suddenly failed on both phone networks. Eventually we gave up on that and had lunch!

Although there was time, we decided not to try and moor at Ellesmere but stooped short at the last Visitor Mooring before the junction. Surprisingly, not only was there a satellite signal for tv, but also a reasonable mobile signal - we are not far across a couple of fields from the newest housing estate on the south west edge of the town. (Even if the town centre remains very badly served)

6.7 Miles - 5 Locks