nbfreedom: April 2017

On Thursday we carried on along the Shroppie past the factory at Knighton ( it used to be the Cadburys factory)

Spot the hidden landrover...

And this rather nice old Rover which was hidden !

The bluebells are out everywhere now.

We went under the only surviving telegraph pole under a bridge along this stretch of the canal.

Cowley tunnel was carved out of sandstone, the colours were amazing inside and the boat before usmade us smile as they came through singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Greg stopped on the way to look at an old WW11 aerodrome where an American thunderbolt was reported to have crash landed in the waterway!

We loved these 2 happy people made out of old car parts at the end of someone's garden

The first lock we arrived at this morning.....

And then I thought we were nearly home.......

Once we were on the Staffordshire and Worcester canal we saw this building...apparently its Tixall gatehouse-it was once used as a prison for Mary Queen of Scots!

Well I tried but he just wouldn't look my way.

At Little Haywood we past this unusual stonemasons cottage with all sorts of interesting things in the garden.

Finally moored up just outside Rugeley, ready for a good night s sleep!!!
Happy days.

Yesterday we finally headed off the Llangollen and down onto the Shropshire Union Canal-or the Shroppie as its known for short. We passed this boat by very carefully- It looked like it might capsize at any minute !

I had heard there were several nice shops in Nantwich so we moored up just before the aquaduct and made our way into town. Why is it the shops look really close on the map...but you end up walking for miles! We passed some beautiful almshouses and the Cheshire Constabulary police houses.

All along the visitor moorings were wooden carvings-I loved this little dog..someone had even given him a scarf.

Over another aquaduct (although not as big and scary as the others) and we headed out of Nantwich with all good intentions of going to Hack Green Nuclear Bunker, but after looking at all the locks we had to get through we decided to keep going ,finish early ,have a bbq and chill-You know what they say about the best laid out plans!

It was getting on when we arrived at Audlem Locks and since we still needed to fill up with water (which was past the 3rd lock up) we decided to go through the first 5 locks before mooring up for the night.

This lovely little church was just at the side of the canal where we filled up with water.

After a long day-and no bbq in sight we went down to the 'Shroppie Fly' for a quick drink.

This morning we set off nice and early, knowing that we had 20 locks in front of us.Six locks up and we met Mr and Mrs Happy-who were definatly not enjoying their day....yes that's her in the blue coat -moaning that they'd had to wait 3 times for boats to come through. Greg wished them a nice day and we carried on going.

Seriously how can you diet when everywhere you look there are home made cakes for sale.

You should have seen this fellas horns.

I finally did it...I think he even sat and posed for me.

I love this boat..we ve seen it out and about before and the painting is amazing...its got a different picture on each side.

Just as we were going towards Tyrley locks we saw this happy fisherman.

There were five locks at Tyrley , the bottom ones go though sandstone and a dark damp tunnel of trees.

At the top is a lovely cottage with a plaque on the wall telling you all about Tyrley Wharf which was where Cadburys used to collect all the milk churns from the local farms and take it to their factory at Knighton.