Sorry it's been a while, comms have been a little hit and miss lately. There is either no signal or the blog site has been down.
We are back on the Shrop and back to civilisation.
We booked our passage again through the flight of locks at Frankton to leave the Montgomery and get back onto the Llangollen.
Which took the best part of two hours; on the way down we'd been at the head of the queue and went down in half an hour. Going up we weren't so lucky.
We got there eventually,
and started to head back into the never ending stream of holiday boats. We called in at Ellesmere once more to stock up on supplies and headed for our over night mooring at Blakemere. On the water overlooking the water.
Only problem was that everybody else had the same idea. The good captain had to tell a holiday boat to turn his engine off so we could get some sleep. Only for some huge unseen machine to start up and wreck the silence for the next couple of hours.
We set off early in the morning to miss the crowds and it worked a treat only saw a couple of boats up until lunch. After that it got a little busier but not much. We made very good progress as a result and made it to Wrenbury for our over night stop. As ever out in the sticks far away from the madding crowd.
The following morning after a bit of a lie in we crept into Wrenbury itself. Though it was a LITTLE damp.
The captain has seen rougher seas than this and pressed on.
It wasn't far, moored up and awaited some of our ground support crew to arrive with parts for the boiler. Thanks to Phil & Elaine we now have hot water again!
Early the next morning, very early the next morning 5.15 am, we set off to get to the locks at the end of the Llangollen before the crowds arrived. At times it got a bit sticky, its was hire boat change over day.
The good captain steered us through the heart of enemy territory unscathed.
We made it to the locks before anybody else and was helped down by the lock keeper. Back into the infamous narrowest lock in the country.
The lock keeper saw us through safe and sound.
We turned right back onto the Shropshire Union and headed down to Hack Green. Where another crack team of our support crew would meet up with us. Bringing with them vital spare parts, chain for the anchor, post and a big big bag of grub!
They stayed with us for the night as we planned our raid on the secret bunker.
Tested the outer security.
Then watched the sun go down.
In the morning we had a go at gongoozling, watching boats go by.
Posing as harmless tourists we snuck up to the bunker.
Then ran away giggling, heading for tomorrows challenge. The 15 locks of Audlem
