Ellesmere Wharf - Wednesday May 22nd

We woke up to a bright but breezy day.  We were booked to go up through Frankton Locks at midday so said our goodbyes to Julie and Jeff (after a wonderful bacon bap made by Julie) and went to the bottom of the locks.  There appeared to be a queue and we discovered that the relief lock keeper couldn’t find the key to unlock the locks!  It seemed to be ages before he managed to locate them I had begun to wonder if we would get through at all.  There were four boats going up and twelve coming down.  The lock keeper said that he had been told to let two down for every one going up and as we were fourth in the queue we seemed to be waiting for ever.  It took two hours in the end before we reached the top and there was still a queue waiting to go down.

Frankton Top Lock

We made the short hop to Ellesmere Wharf – again and tied up.  It was a lovely afternoon and I managed to get the towels, which I had washed while we were going up the locks, dry. 

Richard took Muffin for a walk and I did a Tesco run – we are stocked up with food until we get back to Swanley Marina now.

Ellesmere Junction

PS There is a prize for the person who works out what is wrong with the first photo!

 

Weston Junction to Ellesmere Wharf

3.91 miles
4 locks
0 lift/swing bridges