DINGHY MADNESS

Our journey to Market Drayton was 11 miles and 5 locks. It snakes through the Shropshire countryside and has some of the narrowest parts of the canal.

Most of this stretch is just wide enough for 2 boats to pass, but the encroaching trees and bushes make it difficult to see what’s coming, and the majority of the bridge holes are only wide enough for 1 boat, as sods law always says this is were we meet most of the other boats coming towards us.

It was in Woodseaves Cut, probably the narrowest place, we not only met 2 narrowboats coming towards us, but 2 inflatable dinghy’s. Why anyone would pick such a narrow place to use them is sheer madness. But they did.

The first dinghy was coming towards us, it was bright yellow and the occupants were wearing bright red life jackets, so they we easy to spot but still not something we wanted to see. They smiled sweetly as we crawled past them, we did not respond in a similar fashion.

The second dinghy was in far more danger, going in the same direction as us, it was grey in colour with a darkly dressed guy on board, the only good thing was his mate walking by him on the towpath had a red shirt on. The boat was cruising down the middle on this very narrow part of the canal as we caught up with it. The Captain sounded the horn but the guy seemed unperturbed as our 16 ton boat bore down on him, he slowly pulled into the side to let us past and the Captain had a few choice words with him which fell on deaf ears. By being in the middle of the canal he would have been in the blind spot of any approaching boat, which surely would have spelt disaster and death for the guy. Some people.

At the 5 locks at Tyrley there was a boat going down in front of us, a little more work for me but hey, I needed the exercise. These are still single locks with double gates at the front. With 2 locks to go I realised that the boat in front was grounded in the pound below, so being a helpful soul I ran some water down in an attempt to free them. After a bit of effort they got free and into the last lock. I went down to help them. The crew complained there was no warning of the shelf in the pound they had been suck on. As I set the lock I read a notice on the lock gate telling boaters not to try and moor in the pound because of the shelf, but to set the next lock before leaving this one and cruise straight through the pound. There had been a similar notice on the lock above, but it was so faded I could not read it.

CRT’s decisions do make me wonder at times, as we approached Market Drayton we found a long stretch of visitor moorings were closed for towpath improvement, the busiest time of the year and they close essential moorings. On the other side of the town there are more moorings, but another problem reared it head here. The problem of boats leaving ‘git gaps’. I understand that you need to leave some space between boats, but on this stretch nearly every boat moored had a large space in front and behind, but not quite enough room for an average size boat to moor. The Captain worked out there was room enough for another 3 boats at least. This was highlighted even more strongly when a boat moored in front of us leaving similar gaps as we had seen. Next day when this boat left 3 boats got into the space he had taken up.

We went to the pub of course, The Red Lion which is the Joules Brewery taphouse. The Captain was very pleased with their Slumbering Monk, so we had a few.

After checking the town web page which said there was a Saturday Market we walked into town again, but the information was wrong and there were only a couple of stalls. The indoor market was nothing like last year ,when it was bustling with people and stalls. Such a shame.

With nothing to keep us in Market Drayton we decided to set off and do the 5 locks at Adderley and moor up at the bottom. We met NB Joka II going down in front of us and its crew were very helpful setting the locks for us as no one was coming up.

Next day and we did 11 locks in only 2 ½ miles to Audlem. We like Audlem. 3 pubs, a chippy and a Coop make it a good place to moor. As we left to try the pubs NB New Dawn moored in front of us and we had a chat with its Captain and Crew Alan and Dianne. They like us are Ccer’s (continual cruisers) but unlike us they are brave enough to keep going through the winter. As with most people who CC in the winter, they say it is the best time of the year with the canals being so quiet. I will take their word for it.

The first pub The Shroppie Fly was ok but no darks, so onto The Bridge Inn, no darks again but to make up with it we met a very very friendly cocker spaniel called Arthur. Then the Lord Combermere but still no darks. Not a successful day for the Captains palette.

6 locks, the last 4 of the Audlem flight and 2 at Hack Green, were the Not so Secret, Secret Bunker can be found.

https://www.hackgreen.co.uk/

We were heading for Barbridge, where we would leave the main branch of the Shroppie and join the Middlewich Branch of the canal. Also along this stretch is Hurleston Junction, this takes you on to the Llangollen canal. At Barbridge there is a pub (of course) and we were lucky enough to moor outside. But the choice of beer was disappointing again, and this is were I must have a rant.

Quite a few of the pubs we have visited seem to be of the opinion, that having hand pull real ales on does away with the need to have a bitter on. On the taps there is a multitude of lager and ciders but no bitter. Now this is fine if one of the hand pulls is a bitter, or even better a stout,,but we have been finding that more often than not they are all pale ales or amber beers. This limits the Captains choice even further (he is not a big fan of Guinness, unless its at our local Irish pub). And I am sorry to say he has resorted to becoming a lager lout once again. Bitter used to be a staple of any pub but things they are a changing, and not for the better.

We are now on the Middlewich branch and on our way to the River Weaver for a couple of days.