On the Monty.

Sunday, 21st August 2011.
Ellesmere to Queens Head Visitor Moorings, Montgomery Canal.
7.5 Miles, 3 locks and a Double Staircase Lock.

Reversed back to the junction this morning and turned to moor at the services, a near perfect manoeuvre, just as well as 2 hireboat Captains were watching.

Arrived at Frankton Junction and tied up on the moorings at 9.45 which left plenty of time for breakfast before the Lock Keeper started at 12 noon, there were 3 boats already there including a German family on a Black Prince hireboat.

The Lockie arrived 20 minutes early and removed the padlocks and chains from the paddle gear, we had booked to go through but some people hadn't, it's only a quick phone call to a helpful and pleasant Lady at British Waterways and it's done, but it appeared some older boaters think these simple rules don't apply to them.

Bottom of the Double Staircase

The restricted access and short 7 mile length mean that there are very few boats here,  we had a slow cruise to our planned mooring, there are signs to advise boaters that the speed limit is 3 mph, we averaged 2.5 mph once past the locks according to my Garmin Etrex, as expected if you get to close to the edge your draging on the mud.

The short arm to the disused Weston Branch, now moorings and service Block.

By the Lock of the same name.

The moorings here are 14 days, when we arrived there wasn't a space big enough but a crew came out of the pub after 10 minutes, got on there boat and went, so we slotted in OK.

No Digital TV signal here and trees were in the way for the dish so we have reversed back to the winding hole and turned around, just, it isn't very deep, and moored back in the same spot, we now have a convenient gap in the trees to pick up the satellite.

We have Visitors coming on Tuesday and will probably stay here until Wednesday then move back towards Frankton Junction and moor in a quieter place, it's a bit close to the A5 here.

Note on Booking the Locks.  Some guide books tell you that you need to give 48 hours notice but this is out of date,  the lady I spoke to at British Waterways said you can book up to 10 am on the day you want go through.