It's not often we put in a six hour day but we were determined to get to Coole Pilate for the weekend and as tomorrow is forecast to be a tad damp we set off to do it in one day.
The five Adderley Locks are usually a pleasure but today the top gate of lock three wasn't playing and much to her embarressment Jill had to call for help, it took a real effort to open it.
Out the bottom, the by-wash here always makes picking up the lock worker an interesting exercise. I've generally found it best to go beyond the lock landing and pick them up a bit further along.
Audlem comes next with its fifteen locks, once we get into the "Thick" we have our own routine, Jill opens the top gate of the lock, I bring the boat in, shut the gate and drop the paddles, Jill raises one of the bottom paddles and I do the other and Jill then goes on to set the next lock. Once the lock is empty I open the bottom gates and drop the paddles by which time Jill will have the top gate of the next lock open and off we go again.
Although today was more winter than spring nobody seemed to have told the flowers. We saw wood anemones, coltsfoot, primroses, celandine, the last of the snowdrops and daffodils.
These are a cultivar called Jetfire, a small, early flowering variety and one of my favourites.
And this is how you measure off your progress down the Shroppie, the distinctive 19thC. mileposts.
Out the bottom of Audlem. That tiller arm needs a polish and so does Armie, our tiller pin and mascot.
So we made it to Coole Pilate. The promised rain has arrived and we will sit here until Monday. A weekend of rugby.
Watch this space.........
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