nbfreedom: Locks Locks and more Locks!!!!

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.