Sunday 18th February - Norbury Junction
Spent the day here at Norbury Junction as the weather was unpleasant and we decided against cruising.
Monday 19th February - Norbury Junction to Market Drayton
On this stretch of the canal it switches from embankments to cuttings all the time. This is because The Shropshire Union was built as a straight canal instead of the older contour canals. So instead of going around obstacles, Telford went through them, creating embankments and cuttings.
As we travelled through the cuttings we found evidence of the vegetation slipping down the banks of the canal. The root system of the trees is very shallow and the weight of the tree has pulled it away from the earth.
Here we have arrived at the top of the Tyrley Locks, our favourite set of locks taking us down into Market Drayton.
The tree couple are there to welcome us and all boaters back. We moor for the night just past Tyrley Castle Bridge, where unfortunately the footpath is once again very muddy.
Tuesday 20th February - Tyrley Castle Bridge to Overwater Marina
Today there are a total of 20 locks, 5 at Adderley and 15 at Audlem, all within about 3 miles, so very little distance but a lot of work to do!!
The Shroppie Fly is an iconic pub at Audlem but has suffered recently with poor management and although it is open it appears to do very little trade. It would be a shame to see this place close down.
Overwater Marina coming up on the left hand side, home again for 5 days whilst we catch up with family.
Sunday 25th February - Saturday 3rd March - Overwater Marina
We have had a lovely time seeing Laura, Amy and Annie and are now ready to return to the boat and set off on the last part of our over winter cruise.
However, the weather had other things in store and this week we have been ice bound in the Marina in sub-zero temperatures. We have chosen to stay on the boat so that we can keep the heat on and prevent it from freezing up.
By the late afternoon the ice had developed these rather strange circles, we have no idea why so any suggestions would be welcome.
They are still frozen but have a hole in the very centre of the ice circle. One lady we spoke to referred to them as crop circles, does that mean they are created by aliens???
On Tuesday we found nbBeefur moored in Audlem and met up with Sue and Dave at The Lord Combermere the following day. It was lovely to see them again and catch up on their news.
As you may have noticed I have been playing around with the format of the blog and have found a side bar that shows all the previous blogs and even more exciting, all the previous maps! I shall be interested in what you think about it, enjoy exploring!
As you may have noticed I have been playing around with the format of the blog and have found a side bar that shows all the previous blogs and even more exciting, all the previous maps! I shall be interested in what you think about it, enjoy exploring!
Map Key
Week 1 - Brown Week 2 - Purple Week 3 - Dark Blue Week 4 - Light Blue
Week 5 - Green Week 6 - Olive Green Week 7 - Yellow Week 8 - Orange
Week 9 - Pink Week 10 - Dark Pink Week 11 - Dark Brown Week 12 - Light Purple Week 13 - Indigo Week 14 - Blue/Green Week 15 - Dark Green Week 16 - Muddy Green
Week 17 - Yellow
Weirdly we had similar ice-shapes in the harbour in Portchester! Seems funny that the UK stops with only 5cm of snow but everyone carries on as normal in Switzerland although, I hasten to add, we were cut off for 2 days as we had had 1.5 metres of snow in 24 hours! However, the reason we were cut off was because of avalanche threats - not because the road had snow on it!!! 💡❄️☃️❄️
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